At the heart of our work at TaAF is the belief that when people begin to shift their mindsets, change their approach and build new skills, they are the key to changing the systems and places around them for the better.
As we approach the end of our Accelerator funding phase, we are celebrating the people who have been on this journey with us, those who’ve not only changed themselves, but helped shape the communities and systems around them for the better.
After years of working in school sport Helen knew that helping children be active needed more than another initiative or project “done to” schools. She wanted to see change that stuck, that gave children the same opportunities to move and thrive wherever they lived.
Through the opportunity to ‘do things differently’, Helen was given the time and space to learn and grow. By focusing on building relationships, nurturing creativity and developing others, she’s helping shape how schools across Pennine Lancashire embed physical activity as part of everyday learning and culture.
Seeing the PatternsHelen’s drive has always come from a place of care, wanting children to have the same opportunities to be active, no matter their postcode, gender or background.
“It didn’t seem fair that some areas had opportunities that others didn’t.”
With over 15 years of experience working in schools, Helen had witnessed and delivered countless efforts to get children more active, from more PE, to new short term activity programmes, to daily mile challenges, to walking buses and active travel schemes. Yet despite all these, children’s activity levels remained unchanged… the dial hasn’t shifted.
For Helen being active has always been the one constant in her life, her go-to medicine during challenging and chaotic childhood times. The chance to move, belong and to form an identity through sport gave her a sense of purpose and connection. It’s this lived experience that fuels her belief that every young person deserves access to positive and meaningful opportunities to be active.
That belief continues to drive Helen’s work today. This comes to life through her commitment to making a difference, engaging with young people and ensuring every child has the chance to move and play in a way that feels right for them.
Finding the pathAfter years of being in a role that was focused on delivering, Helen began to reflect on her own direction. She wasn’t looking for a new job, she was looking for a new way to work, something that gave her space to grow and moved away from KPI driven outcomes and one-size fits all approaches. And importantly, connected with her values.
Helen joined TaAF through her established School Sport Partnership role. Early on she was invited to support a piece of work in Burnley, working alongside school senior leadership teams to test whole school approaches to physical activity. At the same time Helen became aware of TaAF work happening in Rossendale, where a local headteacher had been trying to lead the schools’ initiative alongside his day job. “It was impossible to expect it to work with his competing priorities,” she said. At this point she saw the opportunity for where she could make a difference.
And so her journey at TaAF began. Her new role gave her the flexibility and encouragement to learn new skills and try creative approaches. This included skills development workshops such as creative engagement, the power of networks, storytelling and public speaking. TaAF’s investment into Clifton Strengths helped Helen to understand how strengths could enable her to lead in a way that felt right for her. It was here she started to see what doing things differently could really look like.
Connecting the dotsThe beginning of ‘doing things differently’ was the development of the Middle Leaders Programme, an approach built on connection, trust and applied learning. The programme intertwines personal and professional development, giving teachers the skills and capabilities to embed movement into the school day.
“I wanted it to be different. No death-by-PowerPoint. No being talked at. It needed to be useful and fun, but still have clear outcomes schools could see in their classrooms.”
Helen’s growing creative confidence came through in everything she did, from designing sessions and producing school case studies, to sharing stories of impact across the wider system through webinars and conferences.
“I never saw myself as a creative person, but now I find myself designing immersive rainbow rooms to tell our story of change!”
Changing the people to change the systemThe Middle Leaders Programme has now connected over 75 schools and 82 middle leaders across Pennine Lancashire, supported by connecting events that have welcomed over 200 educators, senior leaders and education partners. These schools are no longer working in isolation, they’re learning and sharing together. Every Middle Leader has sparked new ideas, from designing policies that make movement part of teaching and learning, to redesigning lessons to include purposeful activity, as well as youth-led initiatives that reimagine spaces where children move more, sit less and learn better.
These changes are shifting the mindsets of how those Middle Leaders, and in turn their wider schools, think about physical activity. They are no longer waiting for programmes to arrive, they’re learning, adapting and leading from within.
The programme is resulting in powerful outcomes that is making a real difference for schools, teachers and children. Pupils are happier and more engaged, behavioural incidents are reduced, there is an improved readiness to learn and a newfound confidence and energy from teachers in their own practice. For example, one school identified that 1.5 hours a week were being lost in transition time between lessons, they’re now using this time to add in quick movement activities to liven up the class, reduce fatigue and help switch children back into learning mode! Another school rewrote its whole curriculum policy to include purposeful movement, creating more opportunities to share ideas and work with peers. This had a noted improvement on children’s focus and language development, especially those with English as an additional language. And the stories of change from across schools go on and on…. (read more here)
“We used to think of it as ‘doing sport in school’, now it’s about creating an active culture that touches everything, teaching, learning, wellbeing and play.”
These changes have rippled across the wider system too. Through the School Games Organiser network, Helen has been inspiring and helping others to think and do differently. They are becoming more open to working with wider partners, sharing ideas and having the confidence to deliver activities in a more fun and engaging way.
Reflecting on her journey, Helen sees her greatest shift as moving from a hands-on delivery mindset to empowering others to design and lead change aligned with what’s right for their school. Helen says working with TaAF has helped her reconnect with her own sense of purpose and build new skills she never expected. She’s always cared about fairness and opportunity, but this role gave her the space to grow those values into practical leadership.
“It’s reminded me why I love what I do, but it’s also given me new ways of working. I’ve learned to think more strategically, and to trust that the way I work, knowing and owning my strengths”
That openness to learn and connect has shaped a programme that will be self-sustaining well beyond TaAF, shaping how schools, teachers and children shift ‘from nothing to something, and something to more’.
Helen’s next focus in TaAF’s Deepening phase will be secondary schools, a new challenge that she’s approaching with curiosity and optimism.
“I’m excited and nervous, it’s a different world, but I’ll take what I’ve learned and build from there.”
Connect with Helen: CompetitionManager@btrcc.lancs.sch.uk | LinkedIn
Helen is employed through TaAF’s Shared Role Model, working part-time on TaAF priorities while being hosted by Blessed Trinity College. The model brings the benefit of being embedded within an existing system, creating opportunities for connection and collaboration. The TaAF way of working can be seen, understood, and valued on a larger scale, helping to inspire further shifts in approaches and mindsets over time. Read more about our Shared Role model here.
