Safe Enough to Belong, Brave Enough to Grow: Manchester RISE Up at St Paul's Catholic High School
It’s open evening season, and Year 6 parents are asking the same question: will my child be supported when they start secondary school?
The move from primary to secondary is one of the biggest transitions a young person will face. New building, new routines, new faces, and often less time with one trusted adult. For some children, particularly those with SEMH, communication or learning needs, it can feel overwhelming.
As a parent, you want to know your child will be supported and equipped to navigate it. This is what that support looks like in practice at St Paul’s Catholic High School.
For these pupils, the transition into Year 7 is not a single day. It is a journey, and it needs support that lasts well beyond September.
Some of the most powerful interventions never happen in a mainstream classroom. At St Paul's Catholic High School in Manchester, a small, committed team took on one of the hardest jobs in education: helping the pupils who feel most overwhelmed by school find their footing again.
This is the story of the New Horizons Groups, a Year 7 intervention supporting around 12 of St Paul's most vulnerable young people, and how Manchester RISE Up helped turn "safe" into "capable."
Context
New Horizons pupils at St Paul's arrive with complex SEMH, communication and learning needs, often working at Key Stage 1–2 levels academically. Many feel overwhelmed, even "frozen," by the pace and noise of mainstream secondary life. They are highly nurtured, but that nurture had not yet translated into independence, social confidence, or a pupil's belief that they could manage their own wellbeing.
Darren Mawn (Head of PE), alongside Dylan Halford (PE) and Jenny Mawn (SENCO), set out to change that, supported by Neil Moggan (Future Action) and Vicky Marshall (Team MCR).
Intent
The vision was simple to say and hard to deliver: “Safe enough to belong, brave enough to grow.”
Darren's team wanted New Horizons pupils to build confidence, independence and a genuine sense of belonging, using movement, relationships and emotional literacy as the bridge between nurture and independence.
"When we looked at our New Horizons pupils, we saw young people with huge potential who sometimes felt overwhelmed by secondary school life. RISE Up offered the perfect way to build confidence, emotional wellbeing and a stronger sense of belonging through movement and relationships." - Darren Mawn
Implementation
Every Friday afternoon, Period 5 is given over entirely to RISE Up. Darren and Dylan deliver a blend of movement, regulation and reflection, working through the RISE Up Self-Care Toolkit: building confidence, developing self-kindness, using worries positively, raising aspirations, and understanding the body's stress response.
Trauma-informed PE principles are woven into every session. Staff model PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, Empathy) and the RISE framework (Repeaters, Inclusive Teams, Stress Busters, Energisers), using practical tools like breathing work, push-pull resistance activities and inclusive games to build emotional literacy alongside physical confidence.
"Watching a pupil who began the year feeling anxious and withdrawn confidently take part, support others and talk about how they were feeling showed us just how powerful this work can be." - Dylan Halford
Impact
The results speak for themselves. Staff-rated pupil wellbeing rose by 48% across the year, from an average score of 23 to 34 out of 40, with improvement recorded across all eight wellbeing indicators measured.
Managing their own wellbeing, the area pupils found hardest at the start ("Rarely" at baseline), moved all the way to "Often." Feeling useful and making their own decisions both rose two full bands to "All of the time."
Their Post Intervention School Wellbeing Scorecard confirmed the picture: 73% overall, with Habits at 100% and Whole School Impact at 86%.
Just as encouragingly, pupils themselves are becoming more able to talk openly about how they feel, a marker of psychological safety that often shows up before every wellbeing score has caught up. Darren's team is already using this insight to shape next year's focus.
"The biggest change has been seeing pupils start to believe in themselves. They are more able to talk about their feelings, build positive relationships and approach challenges with confidence. That's had a ripple effect across school, helping us create a culture where wellbeing and belonging really matter." - Jenny Mawn
Trailblazers in measuring what matters
Darren and the St Paul’s team have been trailblazers in piloting our RISE Wellbeing Intelligence Snapshot.
The Snapshot is a short survey that gives schools a clear picture of how their young people are feeling, using two internationally recognised questionnaires, and asks whether they have a trusted adult in school. Young people take part with consent, and questions about background are optional.
Schools take a baseline, a mid-year check-in and a final snapshot, with a clear report for busy leaders each time. Partnering with St Paul’s has helped us shape it, and we’re excited to roll it out to more RISE Up schools.
Looking Ahead: 2026–27
New Horizons continues with a new Year 7 cohort next year, building on the relational model already proven to work. Alongside it, Darren is launching a new Wellbeing Boys Group, developed with the school's SEMH lead, for KS3 pupils with ADHD and low mood.
The new group will combine structured BMX sessions, which act as a Repeater to calm the amygdala, widen the window of tolerance, and build access to the pre-frontal cortex through play wrapped in care, with supervised weight-lifting as a Stress Buster: a safe, controlled way to release stress and tension while building self-discipline and self-esteem.
It's a natural next step for a team that has already shown what happens when movement, relationships and consistency are given the space to do their work.
Thank You
Thank you to Darren Mawn, Dylan Halford, Jenny Mawn and the whole St Paul's team for their brilliant, patient work with some of Manchester's most vulnerable young people.
And thank you to Team MCR for continuing to help us build a Manchester RISE Up community that reaches further every year.
If your school is supporting an intervention group who could benefit from the same relational, movement-based approach, we'd love to hear from you.
Your Next Step
Step 1: Join the Waiting List
Explore partnerships, consultancy, training, speaking opportunities, or request your copy of Time to RISE Up – Supporting Students' Mental Health in Schools.
Three minutes to map your current provision and identify the greatest opportunities for impact.
Thank You
Thank you for everything you do for your young people. Have a brilliant week.
Neil Moggan and the Future Action Team
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