Elijah

1 message

Elisabeth Lawrence <ElisabethLawrence@[Link]> Fri, 13 Oct 2023 at 16:22

Dear Veronica,

Please find our personality statement below for you to pass on to the Police.
Please let us know if we can help in any other way.

Very best wishes,

Elisabeth

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________

Rhys Mills, Elijah’s Head of Section, and I met with Elijah several times during his
time at Bexhill College, to offer help and support during periods when he felt
overwhelmed with both his work and his strong sense of responsibility towards
his family and, latterly, his workplace employer. It was always helpful that his
mother was involved in several of the meetings as it was always evident that she
had Elijah’s very best interests at heart and that he appreciated this. We found
him to be very receptive to our support and guidance and it was very pleasing
that he continued with his A level programme and achieved excellent results, as
they enabled him to take up a place at Sheffield University. We were always very
impressed with his level of maturity and his determination to do well in his
studies. He had extremely good working relationships with all his staff and was
always very pleasant and courteous towards them. Likewise, he got on well with
the other students in his classes and interacted well with them. Elijah was
always very motivated to succeed, and we were delighted and very proud of him
when he achieved such good results (2 As and a B).
Here are the comments from his 2 tutors:

James Kimber:

I taught Elijah for three years, Electronics in years 1 and 2 and Electronics and
maths in Year 3. I was seeing him for eight hours per week in the academic year
2022-23.

Elijah was a thoroughly pleasant student for the whole time I taught him. He was
extremely polite and had great respect for his teachers, always thanking them
for helping him and speaking positively of his experience in lessons. He was
always friendly, saying hello in the corridors, thanking me at the end of every
lesson and always saying 'have a nice weekend/holiday' etc. He was an
extremely hard worker throughout, even when going through personal troubles.
He was determined to meet his university offer and was using every free
moment to revise in the lead up to exams. He did not seem isolated or reclusive
in lessons and worked with other students and chatted in the breaks.

In his second year, Elijah had suffered from insomnia and often turned up to
class visibly sleep deprived and struggling to stay awake. He had some
difficulties in his home life due to his parents’ marriage breaking up and some
financial difficulty at this time. As a result he ended up dropping back to the first-
year with the intention of restarting the second-year the following September.
Once he had done this, his mood was greatly improved. He no longer seemed
sleep-deprived and was back to being happy and productive in class.

For most of his third year Elijah seemed upbeat, was working hard, and
performing well. He completed two practical projects that he enjoyed and was
pleased with. Later in the year, he started appearing more stressed. He told us
that he was living at his workplace, a hotel, and caring for the owner who had
had a stroke. This was putting pressure on him as he didn't have much free time
and that when he did, he used it for intensive studying. He was occasionally very
tired in class and was getting stressed about his exams. He complained to me
that he was having trouble concentrating with other people talking in the class
and asked if he could listen to music while working, which I allowed. Near the
end of the year, he spoke to me and said that he was not going to attend any
more Electronics lessons as he didn't have much free time and needed to focus
on his other subjects for his university offer. Again, he was determined to meet
his offer and get to his choice of university. He was looking forward to making a
new start where he could be more independent. He really wanted to make sure
he got in.

He continued to attend maths lessons until the end of the year and seemed less
stressed and tired by the end. He told us that he had stopped having to care for
the hotel owner, had moved back in with his mother and that things had got
better.

I last spoke to him after he had finished his exams. He was in a good mood, was
positive about how the exams had gone and was looking forward to starting
university.

Maria Sheehy:

Elijah was a lovely young man who was very conscientious as a student and
worked really hard to achieve the high expectations he set for himself. He was
mature for his age and a pleasure to have in the classroom, always polite and
helpful to his fellow students. Despite all he had going on in his personal life
and then when living at the hotel, he didn’t let it affect how he applied himself to
his learning when in lessons. He suppressed his feelings about a lot of what was
going on in his life and would only open up after lessons when it was just the
two of us and, even then, he tended to play down how it was affecting him. He
was looking forward to going to university, which was his goal throughout sixth
form. He felt very responsible for his mother and younger sister, and it made
him seem older than his years at times. He had a large amount of time off in his
second year as he was putting so much pressure on himself to do well at
college. His College mentor and his teachers encouraged him to give himself a
break and understand that he couldn’t do everything. He did seem to take this
on board, as he pared his computing coursework down so that he could achieve
an A on it, by doing a reasonably complex program rather than his first idea
which would have taken up far too much of his time and was way beyond the
scope of A level.
Important Information
All staff will endeavour to answer their emails within 3 working days (not weekends or holidays) but this
may not always be possible in busy periods.
Please note that emails are the most effective way to communicate with our teaching staff as they
spend most of their day in the classrooms and are unable to take phone calls.
We believe staff, students and anyone who comes into contact with the College are entitled to a safe
and protective environment in which to work together. Behaviour that may cause harassment, alarm or
distress to staff or other users of these premises is contrary to the ethos of the College and will not be
tolerated. You will be asked to leave.
The College reserves the right to report aggressive, abusive or threatening behaviour to the police.
If you feel that you need urgent support for a mental health concern, outside of the College’s working
hours or during our holiday periods, please contact your GP or present yourself to your nearest
hospital A&E department.
Likewise, if you need to report a serious safeguarding incident, please contact the Police via this
online link: Report a Crime

Disclaimer
This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual(s) addressed in
the message. If you are not the named addressee, you should not disseminate, distribute, or copy this e-
mail. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that disclosing, distributing, or copying this e-
mail is strictly prohibited.