The Mayor of London Boris Johnson is set to help over 1,000 struggling school children reach their full potential with the launch of a £1,600,000 leadership scheme across 40 schools in London.
The Leadership Clubs aim to improve behaviour, self-discipline and educational achievement through a variety of approaches: from Saturday school schemes using creativity to boost confidence, to boot camp’ style strict regimes, and group one to one support to address mental health, speech and communication needs. All the clubs focus on literacy and numeracy to help children excel in their lessons.
This is part of the Mayor’s £40 million Education and Youth Investment programme that includes an additional £700,000 of mentoring grants for new projects that so far include South London YMCA (Lambeth, Croydon ), Tottenham Hotspur Foundation (Haringey) , Track Academy & BANG (Brent), Hackney CVS (Hackney), and Croydon BME Forum. The projects will pair young black boys in need of extra support with positive role models.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said: “There is nothing worse than seeing pupils full of potential slowly drifting into apathy. There are many reasons for low achievement and poor motivation, but our Leadership Clubs aim to boost morale and unlock the ability in each student. These excellent organisations will work with us to steer students back on track, raising aspirations and improving behaviour. I hope this will be a strong catalyst to boost the academic attainment of a 1,000 young pupils who need our extra support.”
The Deputy Mayor of Education and Culture, Munira Mirza said: “Instead of writing off so many young people and making excuses for their problems in and out of school, this scheme is about seeing their potential and motivating them to realise it. All the organisations we’re working with have a strong track record and hold high aspirations for their children. It is the first time a scheme like this has been developed on this scale across the capital and the aim is to make a big impact. “
The leadership clubs will be run by four different organisations, each using their own proven approaches within schools across London boroughs.
The main providers are: Ark –ARK’s programme focuses 10 -14 year olds who are at risk of exclusion. They aim to improve behaviour and academic attainment with individual mentoring, mental health and emotional support, speech and communication skills. They will be working in ten ARK and non-ARK primary and secondary schools in Croydon, Lambeth and Southwark.
City Year London - City Year will place ‘corps members’ (young adult volunteers) in schools to act as role models, mentors and tutors to pupils in need of additional support. Sessions will take place in school classrooms, at lunchtimes, and through after school activities. City Year leadership clubs will reach 360 pupils from 5 schools in East London.
Eastside Young Leaders Academy - ‘Eastside In-School Programme’ is a leadership programme exclusively for boys is delivered in both primary and secondary schools to pupils identified by schools as 'at risk'. The leadership programme takes place through a variety of weekly workshops and 1-2-1 sessions addressing barriers to learning; supporting and developing effective learning and behavior habits and behaviour through self-discipline; and a focus on numeracy and literacy support
SHINE - ‘SHINE in Secondaries’ will help students at risk of underachieving address the challenges of the secondary school transition by providing Saturday morning teaching and creative learning sessions, designed to improve English and Maths. The programme will also involve week-long courses during the summer holidays to help students get acquainted and start developing the personal and study skills required for secondary school
The Leadership Clubs are part of the Mayor’s Education programme, being developed in response to the Education Inquiry he commissioned last year. One of the recommendations is to deliver a leadership programme that focuses on improving student achievement.
The Mayor’s commitment in this area began in 2010, when he secured £150,000 from Nomura bank to help Civitas Supplementary Schools establish two new schools specialising in after school support: the Nomura Saturday School, King's Cross and Nomura Camberwell. Civitas Schools seek to help disadvantaged children reach their full potential through out-of-school academic lessons, outings and mentoring. So far 150 primary age pupils have benefited from the funding and their reading ages have improved dramatically.
Notes to editors
1. The Leadership Clubs are aimed at pupils in schools aged 10-14 years old that are struggling at school, particularly in the transition from primary to secondary school and the first 3 years of secondary school. These young people might be misbehaving, at risk of exclusion or involvement in crime and subsequently underachieving academically. Criteria for each of the leadership clubs will be agreed in conjunction with the schools who will refer pupils directly. Pupils attend the Leadership Clubs for a minimum of two Academic terms (approx 6 months) and the maximum of an academic year.
2, Breakdown of funding: Leadership Clubs ARK - £510,000 City Year London – £150,477 Eastside Young Leaders Academy - £365,524 SHINE – £501,100
Education and Youth Programme Funding £40 million includes £20million contribution from the Department of Education for the London Schools Excellence Fund and £5million match funding from the European Social Fund (ESF) for the GLA’s ESF Youth programme. This funding programme covers activity from 2011/12 to 2015/16.