Share this pageBookmarks on social sites |
Skip navigation
Skip navigation
School project goes from strength to strengthA unique early intervention project launched by Djanogly City Academy Nottingham, which uses football coaching, music and mentoring to encourage young people away from drugs, crime and gang culture has proved so successful it's being expanded to other year groups across the Academy.To celebrate, the Academy is holding a special showcase event on Monday 1st March from 6.00pm to 8.00pm, with guest speakers including BBC Radio Nottingham presenter Bea Udeh. The showcase, which is being held at the Academy's theatre at the Sherwood Rise site, will give students involved in the project the chance to show what they've achieved – including a song called 'So You Think I'm Stupid' written, performed and produced by students with the help of Nottingham's Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies and a documentary style video of the same name. The students will also be presented with certificates of achievement and in some cases, certificates for successfully completing the FA's Soccer Star Challenge, a national coaching, learning and assessment programme for boys and girls aged 6 to 16 years. The project has already been running for two terms as part of the Academy's early intervention programme, aimed at students in Years 8 and 9. Djanogly has worked in partnership with Roger Henry, Manager of the city's Real United Football Club and Holly Searson, Director of Nottingham's Football Coaching Company. This term the project has been developed to include one-to-one mentoring sessions with students at particular risk of social exclusion, together with family mentoring sessions held in students' homes. Roger explains: "We use football coaching and creative activities such as music and video production as a way of encouraging positive behaviour in young people whilst boosting their self-confidence – supported by mentoring and behaviour management sessions. By developing this approach to include one-to-one and family mentoring sessions we've been able to support students even more, by really getting to the heart of their individual issues and concerns. We believe this approach will help to lower the risk of young people becoming involved in anti-social behaviour, crime, drugs or gang culture in the future." Pam Weston, Vice Principal at Djanogly City Academy Nottingham agrees: "It's been very exciting to watch the project develop this term and the feedback from both staff and parents has been very encouraging. The project encourages students to think about the consequences of their behaviour whilst giving them the practical skills and support they need to change it, together with innovative ways to express themselves and grow in self-esteem. All these things can help students reach their full potential, both academically here in school and as young adults, later in life." Next term, Roger and his team will also be delivering workshops with selected year groups as part of Djanogly's involvement in the government's Healthy Schools Programme and DrugAware, an initiative launched by Nottingham's Crime and Drugs Partnership. The project is being supported by Radford based charity the Partnership Council, Nottingham's Crime and Drugs Partnership, Kemet FM, Talk to Frank, DrugAware and Kick It Out. To find out more please contact Pam Weston on 0115 942 4422. For press enquiries, please contact Stephanie on 0115 924 4304 or email stephanie@13souls.com To find out more about the Partnership Council: Visit The Partnership Council Website |
External Links |