'Commando Joe’s' launches at CTS
Romano Betts, a trainer with Commando Joe’s organisation, will be running regular sessions with Year 9 and 10 students at Corby Technical School.
The purpose of the group will be to encourage self-reliance, innovation and teamwork. Students have been hand-picked to take part in the weekly sessions and their progress will be tracked and monitored. Mr Betts runs the programme at several other schools in the area and he is looking forward to working with students at CTS: ‘Commando Joe’s is a veteran-led programme and its ethos is not leaving any child behind. Some of the subjects I will be covering are initiative, teamwork, leadership, communication, technology and it is about building students’ characters.
‘There is a lot of adventure based activities and we will run a syllabus over a term and we could do anything from making a river crossing to bridge building in a classroom. With Years 9 and 10 a lot of it is more communication- led depending on what they need.’
He will tailor the activities to the needs of the individuals in the group. ‘I like to get to understand the students and understand what their spin on the topic is. Everyone learns differently so I need to understand what key priorities are. Typical ones may be to reward behaviour, build on attendance self confidence and self esteem. Every term I will compile an impact report and liaise with the school on how we are doing. This is what sets Commando Joe’s apart - I am instructing on life skills that are going to help students in the classroom.
‘Resilience, Empathy, Self-Awareness Passion, Excellence, Communication and Teamwork are the buzzwords that we use in Commando Joe’s as a RESPECT acronym which is what we are all about.’
Vice Principal Miss James said: ‘We are working closely with Mr Betts to develop a programme that engages students’ needs and their areas of development, which may include confidence building and motivation for learning. It is a really exciting and dynamic programme that will definitely benefit our students.’