A Day to Remember: The Wirral RISE Up Celebration Event

Friday 3rd July will stay with us for a long time. Six brilliant schools came together at Clare Mount Specialist Sports College to celebrate something special: a year of relationships, movement and courage that has transformed how hundreds of young people across the Wirral experience school.

This was not just a fun day out, although it was certainly that too. It was a celebration of everything the Wirral RISE Up partnership has built together since February 2025.

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A Day of Connection and Joy

Children rotated through three activity stations designed to bring the RISE Up principles to life through play.

🌟 Glow Games, delivered by Ben Holden from WannaTeach PE, brought energy, teamwork and pure joy to the morning.

🤝 Play Wrapped in Care, which I had the pleasure of delivering, used inclusive team games to show how play can build belonging, confidence and emotional wellbeing in just a few simple minutes.

🥊 Boxercise, delivered by Isaac Holden, combined boxing drills, skipping and movement challenges to build confidence and regulation.

🎨 A Mindful Colouring and Regulation Area, hosted by the Wirral

Virtual School team, gave any child who needed it a quiet space to settle, breathe and return to their group when they were ready.

The day finished with the Wirral RISE Up Colour Run, with staff joining in alongside their pupils, every single child crossing the finish line to collect a medal and a colour run wristband.

Watching children take risks, support one another and celebrate their own progress was a privilege. But the real story of this day did not begin on Friday morning. It began back in February 2025.

The Bigger Picture: A Year of Real Change

Since February 2025, the Wirral RISE Up programme has partnered with 13 schools across the borough, funded and supported by Wirral Virtual School, to embed relationships, movement and self-care wellbeing toolkits into the heart of school life.

The results speak for themselves.

📊 69% Average Improvement in Whole-School Wellbeing Provision

Using the School Wellbeing Scorecard, schools completing pre- and post-intervention audits showed an average uplift of 69% in their wellbeing provision, achieved in under one academic year.

This reflects shifts in staff confidence, relational practice, consistent regulation routines and whole-school alignment around wellbeing.

📊 30% Average Improvement in Student Mental Wellbeing

Across five completed case studies, Clare Mount, Meadowside, Stanley, The Observatory School and Utopia, teachers recorded an average 30% uplift in student mental wellbeing using the WEMWBS scale.

The most consistent improvements were in optimism, confidence, emotional regulation, social connection and the ability to manage their own wellbeing.

For many children, particularly those carrying additional vulnerabilities, this translates into calmer starts to the day, stronger relationships with the adults around them, and a renewed willingness to engage with learning and movement.

This is not about short-term interventions. It is about sustainable culture change.

What RISE Up Looks Like in Practice

The Wirral RISE Up programme equips schools to:

✔️ Develop emotionally available adults who model safety and trust

✔️ Use movement for mental wellbeing through the RISE framework, Repeaters, Inclusive Teams, Stress Busters and Energisers

✔️ Strengthen self-regulation and emotional intelligence through practical toolkits

✔️ Build consistent, compassionate routines that widen the window of tolerance

✔️ Personalise PE and wellbeing provision to meet diverse needs

✔️ Create a bespoke whole-school approach that genuinely lasts

Schools are supported throughout with whole-staff Trauma-Informed PE and Early Intervention Wellbeing training, coaching and leadership support, pre and post measurement using WEMWBS and the School Wellbeing Scorecard, editable resources and bespoke action planning, all underpinned by multi-agency collaboration led by Wirral Virtual School.

If you would like to explore the full picture of what schools across the borough have achieved, our Interim Impact Report covers five in-depth case studies in detail.

👉 Read it here:

The Real Heroes

Every statistic in this blog represents a child who feels a little safer, a little more confident and a little more ready to learn than they did in February 2025.

The real heroes of the Wirral RISE Up partnership are the young people who have shown extraordinary courage and resilience this year, and the educators across every one of these schools who have brought relationships, movement and self-care to life in their classrooms day after day.

A huge thank you to Ben Holden and Isaac Holden for bringing such brilliant energy to the Glow Games and Boxercise sessions, and to Roo for the brilliant videography.

A special thank you to Clare Mount Specialist Sports College for hosting the celebration and for being our brilliant lead Wirral RISE Up school throughout this journey. Your role in championing this partnership has been invaluable.

And a heartfelt thank you to Oliver Terry and the whole Wirral Virtual School team, our brilliant funding partners, for believing in this work from the very beginning and making the entire partnership possible. None of this happens without you.

Looking Ahead

This celebration is not an ending. It is a milestone.

The Wirral RISE Up partnership continues to grow into the next academic year, with new schools joining and existing partners deepening their work even further. We cannot wait to see what the next chapter holds for the young people across the Wirral.

Thank you to everyone who made Friday 3rd July such a special day. Here’s to the next one.

Could This Be the Start of Something for Your School or Region?

If reading this has sparked something, a recognition, a question, or simply a sense that your young people deserve more of this, here are two simple ways to take the next step.

Step 1: Join our Waiting List 

Explore partnerships, training, consultancy, speaking opportunities, or request your copy of Time to RISE Up. 👉 Join the waiting list here

Step 2: Complete Your School Wellbeing Scorecard It takes just 3 minutes to map your current provision and identify key areas to strengthen. 👉 Complete the scorecard here:

Thank You

As this is our final blog before the summer break, we'd simply like to say thank you.

To every RISE Up partner school, trust, virtual school, active partnership, national organisation and colleague who has invited us to work alongside you this year, thank you for your trust, your openness and your commitment to making a difference for young people.

It has been a privilege to stand alongside you as you have created safer, more connected environments where young people can flourish.

We'll be taking a few weeks over the summer to rest, recharge and spend time with our families after an incredible academic year.

We'll then be back, refreshed and ready to continue standing side by side with you for another exciting year of helping more young people feel safe enough to thrive.

Until then, have a wonderful and well-deserved summer holiday.

Thank you for everything you do for your young people.

Neil Moggan and the Future Action team

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