Inspiring scheme for our teens set to go nationwide

He got his hands dirty in a team raft-building exercise as teenagers took part in the embryonic National Citizen Service. 

The aim of the countrywide scheme, he said, was to raise aspirations of young people and give them a sense of community. 

Cumbria was one of 12 areas chosen to pilot the scheme – whose aim is similar to compulsory military National Service, which ended in 1960 – to teach young people about values and being part of a community. 

Now well-established across the country, NCS – as it now commonly known – has gone from strength to strength, changing the lives of school leavers who take part and many who return to help and offer the same once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to new recruits. 

Teenagers from local towns and cities are thrown together with others they have never met before for a five-day residential. 

The 15 to 17-year-olds take part in a variety of outdoor activities, at a centre like the one at Ullswater. 

During that time they take part in hill walking, camping, raft-building, gorge walking and other outdoor activities, learning to fend for themselves and as a group. 

They then go back to their local area and spend a week living independently while working with community groups, old peoples’ homes or youth projects – crossing paths with people in their own neighbourhoods they may never have spoken to before. 

NCS is also having an impact on local communities, with teenagers tasked to identify, plan and run a social action project in aid of a good cause or charity. 

In its first year more than 10,000 young people across the country were due to take part in NCS, rising to a planned 30,000 the next. 

The vast majority of Cumbrian teenagers who sign up to take part complete NCS with Inspira, the personal development and career guidance organisation based in Penrith. 

This year 800 Cumbrian teenagers completed the summer’s main NCS programme with Inspira, some 500 of them attending a graduation ceremony at Rheged near Penrith in October. 

NCS also operates smaller schemes in spring and autumn holidays.

 Last Wednesday, Chancellor George Osborne announced in the Autumn Statement that the Government is directing more investment into NCS following its success. 

Currently there are places for 80,000 young people over a year - this is to go up to 300,000.

More than 100 teenage students at Caldew School have completed the NCS over the last two years. 

It is thanks to the close links Carlisle United has forged with the Dalston secondary school and down to, in no small part to, former teacher John Sander. 

Mr Sander, NCS co-ordinator at Brunton Park, retired from teaching but now runs the scheme on behalf of the Football League Trust. 

He has become a popular personality among students and staff at the school, developing a strong rapport with all he works with. All students volunteer to take part, completing NCS in their own time. 

The trust was recently able to nominate a school to be recognised for their involvement in the NCS programme. 

Jon Armstrong, north west regional Football League Trust NCS co-ordinator, has no hesitation in putting Caldew School forward. 

Carlisle United is one of seven professional football clubs in the region working with 21-25 NCS young cohorts each year. 

Mr Armstrong said: “There is a very personal relationship here and it is also about the personalities of the individuals involved too.” 

Headteacher Chris McAree was presented with a plaque as the school was named a ‘NCS Champion School’. 

Mr Sander paid tribute to the teenagers. “They are great to work with, they are just so enthusiastic for everything we throw at them and they have come up with so many creative projects for their social action projects.” 

They have varied from raising funds individually before joining forces to use their collective cash to pay for resources to create a new garden in the grounds of the Eden Valley Hospice to helping attract more visitors to one of the city’s leading attractions.