Supporting Vulnerable Students
A proportion of KIT funding is set aside to provide extra support to vulnerable young people at the school. We promote wellbeing and help students tackle all the normal challenges of adolescence. Our Grandin Centre is an on-site facility supporting students with an autism diagnosis and has a wonderful garden which students care for and which provides a ‘calm’ space for students that get overwhelmed. We also provide the Sisterhood programme which aims to enhance skills, self-worth, and leadership in young girls, providing a collaborative platform for growth. For the boys we have the“S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys Project” which is a creative arts project, using photography, poetry, film and podcasts to address the mental health needs of Black boys and challenge the negative portrayal of this demographic in the media.
We also send students who are at risk of exclusion, have exceedingly challenging home lives or who are struggling to make friends to a 5-day residential at Jamie’s Farm. This programme focuses on improving behaviour, engagement, wellbeing and essential life-skills. During the week, their tasks include completing real jobs with tangible outcomes including farming, gardening, cooking, log chopping, music and crafts.
After each meal they reflected on their success and behaviour, giving compliments and showing recognition of their achievements. They did much of this as a team, and had daily opportunities to reflect on how they were finding the week and that day’s activities. In addition to this students benefited from one-to-one and group reflective sessions to support the young people to vocalise rather than act out their challenges and develop new positive behaviour patterns to carry forward into home and school life.
“The Sisterhood Project was fun and I got closer with the girls. It made me less insecure and I wear less make up now due to the project.”
67% of attendees of the S.M.I.L.E - Boys Course said attending the programme had improved their Self-Efficacy
Of the 24 young people who attended Jamie’s Farm Residentials, 83% of students are now performing better against specific outcomes such as improved relationship skills or improved self-management
“The Gardening Club has had a huge impact on our students, as they have been inspired to learn more about plants and their importance in a healthy diet, as well as how beneficial it can be for their mental health”.
Jamie’s Farm Residentials
At Jamie’s Farm, ‘farming, family and therapy’ are uniquely combined in a 5-day residential at one of their farms in the countryside, with 12 students attending each residential. This is the fourth year that our students have attended Jamie’s Farm, and teachers, students and their families have almost unanimously reported that they have had a transformative impact on even the most hard-to-reach students. After the residentials the Jamie’s Farm team carry out follow up visits, and our own teachers hold a monthly group for Jamie’s Farm ‘graduates’.
“My son was receiving detentions almost daily. This was doubly difficult given he is in the top set for all subjects. He was acting out at home. His inclusion in Jamie’s Farm was a real turning point and he came back really happy and proud of himself.”
— Parent of a student who attended a Jamie’s Farm residential
The Bridging Project
The Bridging Project is a new venture, receiving support from the Intrepidus Trust, which aims to ensure that students’ success at university is not determined by their socio-economic background. Its founder, Phoebe Praill, is a teacher at Kensington Aldridge Academy, who started the project to address the difficulties faced by pupils who had gained places at top universities only to face significant problems when they got there. Research shows that this is not unique - students from low income backgrounds are twice as likely to drop out.
“The Bridging Project has enabled me to organise my priorities and helped me maintain financial stability. The coaching sessions have enabled me to rationalise difficulties in my home life which were impacting my studies. This has hugely reduced the anxiety of transitioning from sixth form to university.”
— Classical Studies Student, King’s College
Whilst universities have many support services in place, students most in need of this support are the least likely to reach out for it. Phoebe matches students with professional coaches to ensure that all young people can make the most of their university experience and gain meaningful employment. They have worked at Oxford University, Queen Mary’s London, King’s College London, St Mary’s Twickenham and UCL and are looking to expand into more universities next year
Arbesa, in her first year at UCL, explaining how mentoring through the Bridging Project has helped her.
School Within School
KIT also supports School Within School (SWS), an innovative on-site facility at the school that provides specialist support to students at risk of permanent exclusion from mainstream education.
Students are taken out of the curriculum temporarily to join this 6-week programme, where they receive focused mentoring sessions alongside their schoolwork. They are helped to build confidence, self-awareness and coping strategies to cope better in the classroom and beyond.
To date we have supported:
personal development workshops for SWS students delivered by local community partner Clement James. The programme has been very effective in helping build positive behaviour as well as linking students to CJ who offer a range of activities for local young people.
‘Listen Hear’, a music-based mentoring programme aimed at students who are highly vulnerable, disengaged and involved in street activity/gang membership. The workshop leader uses music as a way of opening up discussion around personal issues.
’12 Rounds’ an anti-knife crime boxing and self-defence programme delivered in partnership with The Change Foundation, which aims to reduce the risk of children and young people’s involvement in knife crime.
Meet Tutdel
Tutdel is new to English and his teachers have been so impressed with his work ethic, progress and developing fluency over the last few months. He attended the school for vulnerable students during lockdown, and stayed long after the other students had left, to work independently on his English.
"Thank you so much. I love the teachers here; they've taught me so much".
— Tutdel, who received the Year 10 Commitment Prize funded by KIT.
English as an Additional Language Students
37% of students at the academy are identified as having English as an Additional Language (EAL) and those with the most basic proficiency in English are at a significantly higher risk of under-achieving and falling behind.
Funding from the KAA Intrepidus Trust, over three years, has been invested in:
Conducting a language proficiency audit in conjunction with the English department across the whole school. Of this, 27 students were to be at B and C on the language proficiency scale and were selected for targeted intervention
27 students received a 6 week programme of individual or small group language intervention, based on their Key Stage and language needs.
To address the impact of lockdown on our EAL students, we funded
Three day Summer School in 2020, the aim of which was to reacquaint students with using English in an academic environment, as well as provide opportunities for structured conversation and socialising
In light of the exceptional circumstances due to the pandemic, KIT is providing specialist EAL support for our most vulnerable 27 students to the end of the academic year 2020-21. This will be provide a bespoke strategy for each learner and combine small group withdrawal, in-class support and planning support for teachers.
We also fund the ‘Helga Roberson Award’, sponsored by a generous donor which rewards one EAL student each year who has demonstrated progress and commitment to their learning.
‘Family Breakfast’ Club
The introduction of the daily Breakfast Club at KAA was of particular importance following the school’s displacement from its building in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. Reports of some students arriving at school hungry having not had a proper breakfast at home, and this having a negative impact on behaviour and learning, prompted the establishment of this service which feeds over 100 pupils and 20 teachers each day.
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