Transforming Education this International Youth Day
Today is International Youth Day. Established by the UN in 1999, it’s an opportunity to draw attention to youth issues worldwide. Every year it is given a different theme; this year’s theme is “Transforming Education”.
The theme highlights efforts made by professionals and young people alike to make education more relevant, equitable and inclusive. Relevance and inclusivity are important across any educational context but particularly crucial in our sector.
We are committed to ensuring that every child in our care has the best possible opportunity to achieve their full potential. This commitment is not only rooted in academic achievement, but in experiential learning, vocational education, and cultural and artistic development.
This is why we have invested in an integrated model – where residential care and education work hand in glove. We have specialist schools, with highly trained teachers and support systems in place to build a learning environment around the individual needs of the children and young people. Our specialist schools offer vocational and experiential courses, designed to help those placed with us learn valuable life skills which will help them in later life, as well as academic courses.
Many of the children who attend our specialist schools need additional support beyond teaching and learning. The pupils have ready access to experienced therapists who can help them; often a first, crucial, step in their journey to start learning.
Where young people are not attending our specialist schools, we work hand in hand with education providers to ensure the needs of our children are met and they can flourish in their respective setting.
As a consequence of being moved between placements, many children in care have gaps in their education. Our integrated model prevents this from happening so often, but as a social enterprise, we encourage suppliers to offer interviews to care experienced children and not to dis-count them based solely on their education.
We’re proud of the insight, skills and experience that our staff bring to ensuring that every boy and girl can achieve and grow to the full. We expose them to and encourage, educational opportunities of all kinds, equipping them to make a successful transition to further education, employment or training; and allowing them a brighter future than the one they joined us with.
We’re supporting International Youth Day – if 30 years of experience has taught us anything, it’s how important it is to keep moving, learning and developing.