Macmillan Academy is the first school in the North East to take part in a SCHOOLS NorthEast resilience initiative with record-setting mountaineer, Masha Gordon.

World record holder Masha Gordon launched a confidence-boosting programme with a group of 30 students here at the academy to tackle the 'bravery deficit' experienced by teenage girls.

GRIT & ROCK, the charity founded by Masha to share her record breaking journey in order to inspire teenage girls aged 13 to 15 from deprived, inner city backgrounds, will be rolling out the project for the first time in the North East here in Middlesbrough.

The initiative aims to support girls in developing greater grit, determination and self-confidence through a year-long mountaineering training programme.
The Year 10 and 12 girls who are part of the programme will be working with GRIT&ROCK, along with the academy, to boost their confidence by undertaking exciting and challenging outdoors activities including wall climbing and high wires.

The teenagers will benefit from a programme that features weekly supervised indoor climbing sessions, two outdoors scrambling courses in the UK and an alpine skills initiation course during the June half-term. They will also receive mentorship from women with inspirational stories, including the charity's patron Hazel Findlay.
Before taking on the world’s highest peaks, Masha Gordon was Managing Director of Goldman Sachs. She was named among 'Top 40 under 40 in Asset Management Industry' and 'Rising Stars in Finance' by Financial News.

She actively supports development of grit and resilience in young women through charitable programs of GRIT&ROCK, a charity she founded after setting two world records in the Explorers Grand Slam and 7 Summits becoming the fastest woman to complete both and gaining an entry into the Guinness Book of World records for the latter.

Masha commented: "In today's Britain we face a major lack of gender self-confidence amongst teenage girls. According to a survey by the National Citizen's bureau some 40% of the UK's young women do not see themselves as capable of taking on risk vs just 27% of boys. This 'bravery' deficit feeds gender imbalance in key jobs later in life. Outdoors help foster risk-taking and build grit. It's time we recognise and harness that power by including it more broadly in our school curriculum. I hope the lead we are taking will encourage the Government to look at ways to bring these challenges into mainstream schools to better prepare our girls for the future."

Phil Latham, Principal, said: "We are delighted to be working with Masha and her charity GRIT & ROCK. Developing emotional health and wellbeing is on every school's agenda. This is a fantastic opportunity for our students to challenge themselves and develop a determination and self-confidence which will be essential in enabling them to fulfil their potential. Along the journey the students will work with role models who I am sure will inspire them to succeed."

Masha gave a speech on developing resilience at the SCHOOLS NorthEast Summit 2016 on Thursday 13 October, where she will called on Education Secretary Justine Greening to encourage schools to develop more challenging activities such as rock climbing to help develop resilience among girls.