Skip to main content

New funding to tackle school exclusion

No5 Young People has been announced as one of the recipients of the Berkeley Foundation’s Skills for Positive Futures funding programme, aimed at tackling the causes of youth violence, including school exclusion. 

A new three-year partnership with grant-giving charity Berkeley Foundation will see mental health experts No5 Young People receive £85,217 to pilot a new prevention programme for local young people at risk of exclusion. 

Talking about the new programme, Alyson Brickley, Director at No5, said: 

No5 are chuffed to be leading this three-year pilot, funded by Berkeley Foundation, working with young people at risk of exclusion. Young people shape our services so we are conducting consultations with young people at Cranbury College to capture their experiences and challenges which will input into the final programme. Already, the No5 team are humbled by the openness of young people when reflecting back on their experiences of school and talking about their life now. We are excited about how their stories will shape the preventative work to follow.”

The programme is being developed together with young people with experience of exclusion, with the aim of improving individual behaviour and reducing the risk of exclusion among 8-14 year olds in the local area.  

390 pupils were excluded across Reading in 2018-19; some from multiple schools.  A 2019 report on serious youth violence from the Home Affairs Committee found a link between school exclusion and knife crime, calling for more support for those children most at risk.

No5 is one of five charities to be awarded Skills for Positive Futures funding, which has been given to organisations that provide social, educational and emotional support for children aged 8-14, in an effort to keep them in mainstream education.

Sally Dickinson, Head of Berkeley Foundation, said:

Berkeley_FoundationBy bringing together the mental health expertise of an established counselling service and young people’s own experience of school exclusion, this project has the potential to have a real impact on young people at risk of disengaging from mainstream education.

“We look forward to working with No5 Young People over the next three years, as they pilot this programme with young people in Reading.” 

For more information about Skills for Positive Futures, visit www.berkeleyfoundation.org.uk

You can read the full press release here.

Get Involved

Your support through fundraising allows us to carry on supporting young people’s mental health.

Support No5