While everything in the world as we knew it seems to have turned upside down recently, we’ve been a little quiet here at Franklin Scholars. We just wanted to let you know that we’re all safe and well, but we are undergoing some significant change as an organisation. At the moment we are working with limited staff capacity, doing our best to adapt to the circumstances and also taking the opportunity to conduct a strategic review to understand how we are best placed to support schools and young people in a post-Covid world - and beyond.
We know that the impact of the current crisis is going to be far-reaching, and that it is expected that the gap between pupils from higher and lower socio-economic backgrounds will widen even further; not just in terms of academic progress but also, and perhaps more devastatingly, social and emotional development and mental health. We are committed to supporting young people when they need it most, and are working hard to develop new solutions to the new problems they are going to be facing.
A couple of staff changes to announce
Firstly, the wonderful Laina, our Manager for Programme Delivery, is leaving us to take on a new role at another youth-focused organisation. Laina has been with us since 2016 and has brought so much wisdom, initiative and encouragement to the team, not to mention being the office coffee and plant guru. Laina, we will miss you immensely and wish you so much success and joy for the future.
Secondly, our founder and former CEO, Jess Barratt, has returned on a part-time basis to steer the strategic review and consult on next steps for the organisation in these uncertain but critical times.
An update for schools
For schools who are interested in running our programmes in the 2020/21 academic year, regrettably we may be unable to offer our full suite of services, but are working hard to turn our peer-mentoring expertise and resources into practical and accessible tools and training packages to support you and your pupils. Watch this space for an announcement in June, or if you’d like to chat to us before then, drop us a line at hello@franklinscholars.org.
We’ll also be launching our comprehensive 7-year Impact Report, a look back on everything that we’ve done and learned since founding the organisation in 2013, which we’re excited to share with you.
We’ll be in touch very soon!