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| Subject | Higher Education |
| Type | Skill, Attainment Raising |
| Audience | Young Person |
| Location | In-School, On Campus |
| Year Group | Year 9, Year 10, Year 11, Year 12, Year 13, L3 Y1, L3 Y2 |
| Term | Spring, Summer, Autumn |
| Sign Up | Teacher |
Future Forward runs in a select list of our partner schools where we know we can have the most impact.
If you’re working at City Academy Norwich, Hewett Academy, Open Academy, Sewell Park Academy, or City College Norwich (Media and Health & Social Care students only) then we’d love to talk to you more about Future Forward.
The benefits of Future Forward can be seen in the classroom and beyond. You can expect to see increased confidence, higher motivation and, ultimately, better outcomes for your students. Through a combination of mentoring and events over the course of two to three years, we’ll work with your students to develop key skills including:
Our learning mentors will tailor sessions to your students’ individual needs and, like all of our outreach activities, everything is totally free. We need your help to select the students who would benefit the most from taking part.
How can my students take part?
You need to nominate students who fit the eligibility criteria below, and who you think would benefit from dedicated mentoring support. Nominations will open in the autumn term, and your dedicated Student Learning Mentor will tell you how many students to nominate. Then it’s as simple as 1, 2, 3…
Nominations will be open for students in Year 9 or Year 12/Level 3 Year 1 at the start of the 2025-26 academic year.
We’ll be on hand to answer any questions you may have.
Who is eligible?
Students must meet both the academic criteria and the widening participation criteria to be eligible for Future Forward.
Students must meet one or more of the following criteria:
Being care-experienced means the student will have spent time living with foster carers under local authority care, in residential care (e.g. a children’s home), looked after under a supervision order, or in kinship care with relatives or friends, either officially (e.g. a special guardianship order) or informally without local authority support.
An estranged student is someone who no longer has the support of their parents, and often also other family members, due to a permanent breakdown in their relationship which has led to ceased contact. This might mean biological, step, or adoptive parents or wider family members who have been responsible for supporting the student in the past.
How should I choose who to nominate?
If lots of your students meet the eligibility criteria, it can be tricky to decide who to nominate. We want to work with the students who will benefit the most from Future Forward. In particular, we’re keen to work with students who may need support with our key skills: adaptability, autonomy, communication, and teamwork.
If a student is already progressing well with those skills and achieving high grades, they probably won’t benefit as much from Future Forward’s support. Equally, Future Forward isn’t best placed to support students who are facing significant challenges in areas like attendance or behaviour, as the mentoring sessions require sustained and proactive engagement from students.
How many spaces are available?
Your school’s Learning Mentor will let you know how many students to nominate.
Sounds great, how do I nominate my students?
Nominations will open in the autumn term of the 2025-26 academic year. We will share a simple form with you; just let us know when you have consent from the students and we’ll make the arrangements via email.
When and where do sessions take place?
Students will meet with their Student Learning Mentor in school or college, in a room that you provide. Sessions will take place at different frequencies depending on the time of year.
We’ll work with you to schedule mentoring sessions at the most convenient time, identifying classes that students can miss and catch up on where needed.
Additional events will take place at UEA or at other organisations. Events change each year but Student Learning Mentors will be able to share all the details with plenty of notice.
What impact does Future Forward have?
Our previous work has shown significant impact. For example, 86% of Year 13s who took part in Future Forward applied to university in 2021 versus the national average of 43.2% of 18 year olds domiciled in England (source: UCAS).
Our young people have progressed to a wide range of universities across the county and overseas – from the University of Cambridge to Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands) to the University of York. And lots in between! And it’s not just about university, lots of our students have successfully secured higher apprenticeships at Aviva and other similar organisations.
Don’t just take our word for it…
“I have found mentoring to be very helpful at finishing tasks, talking about problems and discussing ideas” Year 11 student
“It gives me a chance to reflect on the things I’m doing and to focus on anything I’ve got questions for.” Year 13 student
“My son has enjoyed it and received a lot from his time on residentials. The fact that this has been at no costs to parents has been fantastic. We have really appreciated the input from UEA. Thank you!” Parent of student
Got more questions? Chat to your Student Learning Mentor or contact our team – we’ll find the answers you’re looking for.
