Ruby’s Story
Please note that the name of this young person has been changed to protect their identity.
“Bridges has definitely made me more confident about school and more open-minded.”
- Ruby
Ruby was referred by her guidance teacher as social anxiety was affecting her education. Ruby’s transition from Primary 7 to S1 was severely disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic and she spent this time in lockdown. Since then, Ruby had never attended secondary school on a regular basis and had become very socially isolated.
Ruby met with Sarah for an introduction and discussion around what support she would like. She mentioned an interest in working with animals in the future but was otherwise very quiet and only spoke in single-word sentences.
In the first few sessions, Ruby and Sarah talked about what was important to her and what goals she had. Ruby stated that she did not care about qualifications, she had no interest in going to school and that she had been disengaging with support sessions with the school’s Inclusion Support Team. Ruby and Sarah struggled to create an action plan as Ruby had very little motivation to do anything.
Ruby and Sarah continued to meet weekly. They discussed options for the future, alternative qualifications that may interest Ruby and social opportunities.
After a few weeks, Ruby asked if Sarah could support her with her National 3 English qualification. Sarah worked with Ruby’s school to put together a package of work to prepare her for the assessment to determine her level. While doing this work, Sarah noticed Ruby was always unsure of her answers and second-guessing her work, despite the fact her work was of high quality. They worked on confidence and resilience and Ruby soon started attending an attainment intervention with her school at a local community centre.
Ruby and Sarah also applied for Ruby to attend the Introduction to Principles of Animal Care Distance Learning SCQF Level 5 course via Scotland's Rural College (SRUC). This was a long application process, which helped Ruby become more resilient. She started the course and enjoyed it a lot.
Ruby and Sarah continued to meet weekly to check in on her progress and social anxiety. She began to learn guitar via the East Lothian Council Instrument Lending Library and to attend an outdoors group at Bridges Project.
After a while, Ruby said that she would like to go back to school to prepare her for going to college to study Animal Care full time. Ruby and Sarah set up Child Planning Meetings, tours of the high schools and meetings with her teachers before she started a full-time timetable.
The self-assessments Ruby has completed on her own progress shows how far she has come. At the beginning of her support journey, she scored herself 33 out of 100 on skills. This increased to 73 out of 100 when she completed her next self-assessment. Likewise, Ruby initially scored herself 27 out of 40 on wellbeing. This increased to 37 out of 40.
Ruby has now started attending school full-time for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic. She is sitting five classes and is planning to stay on until the end of S6.
Ruby and Sarah have worked together to create a plan for her future as Ruby wants to attend college and do a work experience in animal care.
Ruby is showing much more confidence in herself and her future.