Tackling the incredibly high number of school exclusions in K+C

To tackle an incredibly high number of school exclusions in the borough the K+C Foundation partnered with West London Zone to launch a pilot initiative introducing a Link Worker model to Chelsea Academy and two of its feeder primary schools. WLZ worked with 110 children across the 3 schools who had been identified as at risk of exclusion.  The Link Worker built action plans with them and their families which offered specialist, tailored support. The pilot has now concluded and due to its success will be rolled out in other boroughs. LMAX’s support directly enabled 85 young people to benefit from this pilot programme.

Osman’s story: Osman was identified by school leaders as someone who would benefit from support through this programme. He had low school attendance, poor general engagement and high behavioural needs. At the beginning of the programme he was very unsure about whether he wanted to take part. However, throughout the first half of the spring term he opened up to his Link Worker and took part in weekly specialised sessions to help tackle his anger issues. The feedback from the facilitator has been incredibly positive. Every week he mentions Osman’s thoughtful attitude and engagement in sessions.

It has also been wonderful to see how Osman has become more confident and has even started to enjoy talking about challenging topics such as his emotions. This improvement has been noticed by other members of staff at the school particularly his Head of Year, which Osman is particularly proud of. Whilst we are still early on in the programme and there is more work to be done, it has been such a privilege to see Osman develop into an emotionally intelligent, confident and friendly young man.