A: We can work with any year group, Y6 upwards. If you aren’t sure who to choose, we recommend Y9 as they are going through a particularly key stage in their identity formation and brain development.

A: For our smaller cohorts programme, it is 16-24 participants per exchange – 

8 – 12 young people and 1-2 staff members from a state school 

8 – 12 young people and 1-2 staff members from a private school. 

For our larger cohorts programme, we run this for whole year groups. 

A: For our smaller cohorts programme, young people are selected through our recruitment and application phase of the programme. A recruitment assembly is run in each school alongside directly encouraging certain young people who schools believe could benefit from the programme to apply. Together, Roots and the schools decide the final youth participants. 

For our larger cohorts programme, the entire year group participates.

A: The larger cohorts programme lasts between 1 – 2 terms dependent on school preference. 

The smaller cohorts programme lasts approximately 12 weeks (1 full term), dependent on school timetables and needs. This does not include optional ongoing involvement with our organisation whereby young people can opt in to other opportunities such as writing blogs that we publish, having their say in our programme design through youth advisory sessions etc.

A: Everything works around school and staff timetables. We do our best to accommodate the needs of all parties involved and so can be flexible around the following.

Timing commitments for the programme itself – 

1. a) Online sessions will be around 1 hour each (dependent on school timetables)
2. b) The 2 School Swap days will take up a full school day each (school groups will return in time for the end of their school day/busses)
3. c) The Vision Day will ideally take place at one of the schools, preferably on a Saturday. We can work with schools to accommodate their needs around this however if weekends are not viable.
4. d) A few hours will need to be committed outside of this to support delivery of the programme (recruitment processes, organisation of dates, programme feedback)

Resources –

1. a) Students will need to have access to a device each (school laptop/iPad/computer) in order to participate in online sessions. Devices will need to have a working camera, headset/earphones and access to online platforms such as Zoom. We can help to support with resources such as earphones if schools do not have access to any.
2. b) Transport to and from the partner school for School Swap days and Vision Day should be organised by schools. If this is not possible however, we can support schools with this.
3. c) One room will be need to be booked and available for the whole group involved (young people and staff) for the Roots Workshops on the School Swap Day at each school.

A: This depends on which programme your school is running. 

We aim to run one session of the programme each week or fortnight, dependent on which programme your school is running (a lesson from the SOW/an online workshop/a School Swap Day/Vision Day). This can be flexible and dependent upon school timetables and availability.

A: Qualitative and quantitative feedback data is taken throughout the programme. All participants will complete a baseline survey and a post-programme evaluation survey. Throughout the programme students are constantly reflecting upon their experience of and within the programme. We aim to share these with school staff.

A: State school fees for the whole programme: 

£500 

Independent school fees for the whole programme: 

£3000 (smaller cohorts programme)

£2500 (larger cohorts programme) 

These are subsidised rates that include our own fundraising efforts. We can support schools to source these funds for the programme, whether that is through parental support, Pupil Premium, CPD or personal development school budgets, accessing sponsorship through local businesses, donors or charities etc.