Shaftesbury Enterprise Impact Report 2020-21

Shaftesbury Enterprise is Harrow School’s initiative focused on improving the educational outcomes and life opportunities for young people in our neighbourhood particularly for those who face significant barriers to progress.

SHAFTESBURY ENTERPRISE IMPACT REPORT 2021

Shaftesbury Enterprise is Harrow School’s initiative focused on improving the educational outcomes and life opportunities for young people in our neighbourhood, particularly for those who face significant barriers to progress.

Together, in 2021, we have raised and given away close to £500,000 and we have supported more than 10,000 young people through the current crisis.

Our purpose

Our purpose is improving the prospects of children and young people in the Borough of Harrow, and further afield, who face significant barriers to progress. We will do this through transformative interventions including both educational and co-curricular opportunities.

Our vision

Our vision is to enable every young person in our community, irrespective of background, to thrive and achieve their full potential, find fulfilment, and go on to have successful adult lives that allow them to contribute positively to society.

Our objectives

We will achieve our vision by focusing our efforts on three key challenges:

Widening access for those from a broad range of abilities and backgrounds through providing bursaries, exemplary pastoral support and opportunities in a boarding environment for boys who would thrive at Harrow School but for whom the fees are prohibitive.

Improving educational attainment through providing appropriate academic intervention at primary and secondary school level.

Improving life outcomes through offering diverse co-curricular opportunities and suitable interventions to support mental and physical well being and supporting individuals to access universities or employment, with a focus on young people who would have limited access to such provision.

We hope you enjoy hearing below from the Head Master of Harrow School, Mr Alastair Land.

The Director of Shaftesbury Enterprise, Mr Tim Dalton, gives his overview of the year in the video below.

LONG DUCKER

Every year the Harrow community organises and undertakes a charity sponsored run and bicycle ride called the Long Ducker. A significant portion of funds raised through this year's event enabled Harrow School to support schools and institutions in bridging the ‘digital divide’ - providing access to an online curriculum as well as additional academic support that would otherwise not have been possible.

"Harrow School has continued to provide unwavering, dedicated support for our unpaid carers and the work of our charities throughout the pandemic. The School has recently funded a programme of activities supporting our young carers with improved educational attainment, life chances, personal wellbeing and resilience." Colin Powell, Operations Manager, Harrow Carers.

Funds were also made available to organisations such as Harrow Carers and Refuge to help young people whose difficulties have been made almost unbearable by the pandemic.

"We are extremely grateful for all the support from the boys, parents and staff at Harrow School. In the best of times, young people with disabilities face challenges in life; in this most difficult time, these challenges have become even greater. We used the money received from the Long Ducker fundraising in two distinct ways. First and foremost, to support the most vulnerable members of our school community in purchasing digital equipment to enable them to engage with remote learning at home, and to support the children of key workers who are in school. Unfortunately, many of our families have lacked the necessary IT equipment or access to the internet at home, so the money from the fund has proved invaluable in supporting those most in need. In addition, we have put some of the funds aside to help us create a library for students to encourage and support literacy across the school. Under the theme #letsgetreading, we are aiming to set up (with your support) a library that will not only improve our students' literacy levels, but will also provide a space where they can enjoy and develop a love for reading that will help raise self-esteem, confidence, sense of safety and wellbeing in our school community." Deborah Stone, Community Engagement Manager, Shaftesbury High

Funds Awarded

Over £120,000 to Young Harrow Foundation.

Over £60,000 to The Harrow Club.

£3,000 to Roxeth Primary School to help bridge the digital divide (device and connectivity help for vulnerable pupils), support for STEM project and Primary Shakespeare Company.

£3,000 to Vaughan Primary School to support Literacy and refurbish the school library.

£1,000 each to St Anselm's and St George's Catholic Primary Schools to help with academic support.

£3,000 to Welldon Park Primary to help bridge the digital divide.

£2,500 to Grange Primary School to bridge the digital divide, support literacy, wellbeing and the food bank.

£6,000 to Woodlands School for children with complex and profound learning difficulties to provide sensory equipment and therapeutic spaces for children with significant disabilities who were unable to go out in lockdown.

£3,000 to Shaftesbury High School to help bridge the digital divide and set up a library.

£1,000 to London Academy of Excellence Tottenham to help bridge the digital divide.

£4,500 to Elsley Primary School to bridge the digital divide, support literacy and the food bank.

£5,300 to Harrow Carers to support young carers by funding the roll out of a Young Carers' card scheme and refurbishing a centre for young carers.

£500 to Harrow Mencap to fund two digital projects to support adults with learning disabilities and their carers.

£5,000 to Alexandra School to provide inclusive resources for pupils with special educational needs, and to fund a support programme for disengaged pupils and their parents.

£5,000 to Cystic Fibrosis Care to help provide essential services and equipment, along with practical help and support to children and adults, their families and Specialist Care Centres.

£5000 to Sir John Beckwith’s digital deficit campaign.

£1,000 to Refuge, a charity supporting women and children who have suffered domestic violence.

£2,000 to Oscar, a football for development non-profit organisation dedicated to empowering children and young people in low-income communities in India.

YOUNG HARROW FOUNDATION

This year, our focus was on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on the most disadvantaged groups of society in north-west London. through Long Ducker events, we were able to donate more than £120,000 to Young Harrow Foundation. You can read and hear more about our work together below.

Young Harrow Foundation

Young Harrow Foundation was the main Long Ducker charity in 2020 and will be again in 2021 (see below for more on Long Ducker). A membership organisation set up by John Lyon’s Charity, the charity supports the local voluntary sector by focusing on the five key areas of mental health, physical health, inequality, youth violence and employment.

The partnership between Young Harrow Foundation and Shaftesbury Enterprise has developed significantly, with large scale collaboration in several areas:

The charity has moved into School offices this year, meaning we now work side by side to support young people in Harrow. Take a tour in the video panel below.

Harrow School opened its grounds and buildings for the charity to use for young people throughout summer 2020, Easter 2021 and summer 2021. This included use of facilities for sport, music and drama, access to classrooms, team building and many other activities, and the provision of nutritious lunches. Over 2,000 young people have engaged with our joint holiday programmes.

On top of providing facilities, staffing and resources for young people’s activities, we have given almost £200,000 in funding to programmes in the borough, providing grants and resources for the programmes that would have the greatest impact.

This is just the start; through future collaboration, we will provide support and opportunity for young people in Harrow facing significant barriers to progress.

Let's hear from the Young Harrow Foundation about their work with us.

In the summer of 2021, Young Harrow Foundation moved into newly refurbished offices belonging to Harrow School.

Find out more below how funding has impacted the community.

THE HARROW CLUB

The Harrow Club

The Harrow Club has been working to create positive futures for marginalised young people in West London since 1883.

Through Long Ducker events, we have been able to donate over £60,000 to The Harrow Club.

It aims to empower young people to complete their education, avoid anti-social behaviour and become positive contributors to society.

Working with up to 500 young people each week across six clubs, The Harrow Club helps them to recognise their full potential.

As well as running eight youth clubs and more than ten regular projects encompassing sport, arts, education and recreation, the Club provides short trips and holidays to more than 200 children each year.

Hear more about our work together in the video below.

LUMINA

The Lumina Tutoring Programme was launched during the first national lockdown, as a spontaneous and ad-hoc response to the educational challenges faced by care-experienced young people when schools closed. The programme has evolved into an efficient and effective way to meet a real need for Children Looked After, a group already at significant educational disadvantage and who are also likely to have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic in additional ways.

The programme brings together inspirational teachers and mentors with diverse skills and backgrounds and from across the education sector, harnessing their expertise to help a group of young people facing significant disadvantage to thrive and move on to successful careers in the future.

The programme is currently operating with 40 teachers across four schools - Harrow, Northwood College, Notting Hill and Ealing High School and Orley Farm School.

The programme works in close partnership with Harrow, Ealing, and Barnet Virtual Schools with the ambition of extending its reach in the months ahead.

Find out more about what's happened in the last year in the video below.

"The online one-to-one tuition organised by Lumina has grown from strength to strength over the past years. The recent expansion of tuition to include children of primary age has given welcome additional support with their learning to our younger pupils. As professionals, we have also witnessed first-hand the benefits that this tuition programme has brought to our students, including good academic progress and raised levels of confidence across many areas of their lives. We remain indebted to the many teachers who have volunteered their time for our students, especially during the disruption to schools at the height of the pandemic. We wish Lumina every success, as many more looked-after children continue to access this valuable resource." Mellina Williamson Taylor, Harrow Virtual School Headteacher; Patrick O’Dwyer, Director of Education, London Borough of Harrow; Paul Hewitt, Corporate Director – Human Services, London Borough of Harrow

“For some, it has not been an easy journey, living away from Ealing. Working with kind and nurturing mentors has improved confidence, raised aspirations and provided a wonderful platform to connect with others in similar life situations. They are optimistic, feel supported and look forward to the journey ahead." Sue Tarry, Ealing Virtual School

“I got a 9 in the topic assessment on using resources. Thank you so much for tutoring me” CLA Tutee

"I wanted to thank you for the remarkable work you did with her maths work. She received grade 4 Maths and she passed all her GCSEs, receiving grades 5 and 6. She was accepted at all the colleges she applied for. We are so proud of her. Thanks again. I’m sure she will never forget your time with her.” CLA Guardian

SHAFTESBURY ENTERPRISE GRANTS

The pandemic has thrown a spotlight on social and educational inequality. Research is giving clear evidence that the disruption in children's learning over the last 18 months has caused gaps to widen. Both the mental and physical wellbeing of young people have also been severely affected by the pandemic.

Shaftesbury Enterprise initiatives in 2020/21 have really focused on trying to mitigate the social, educational and mental disruption to young people. For example, we've worked with looked-after children, a group that has been most severely affected by the pandemic, to provide high-quality tutoring.

By working together with our partners, we are helping young people facing the greatest barriers to progress. We're helping them to fill the gaps in their learning, improve their mental and physical wellbeing, and access further education and opportunities. It is our bold ambition to help them to recover from the impact of the pandemic as quickly and as comprehensively as possible. All the funding is targeted towards those most in need. The following projects have either been initiated or supported with Shaftesbury Enterprise funding and the grants given over the year total £225,000.

Read the stories below and click through to videos to find out more about how we've made a difference - together.

MyYard is targeting 11–18-year-old young people in South Harrow who live in temporary accommodation and social housing on the Grange Farm Estate, and who need individual support to achieve their full academic potential. MyYard will employ a youth worker who, on two days a week, will help the young people engage with and succeed in education by addressing a lack of motivation and underachievement.

Spear Harrow's aim is to equip young people between the ages of 16 and 24 with confidence, motivation and the vital skills they need to succeed in long-term employment. We worked together to deliver a targeted programme over six weeks, through group and one-to-one sessions designed to increase young people’s self-belief and readiness for work, focusing on areas like navigating conflict and making positive choices, as well as CV writing and professional communication. Job vacancies will be sought from a network of employers, and external touchpoints with professionals, including practice interviews, will be facilitated. Harrow School has contributed over £250,000 to the Harrow Spear programme over the last five years. This year, 15 boys in Year 12 volunteered at Spear sessions online and we are thrilled to be continuing our close working relationship in person as lockdown ends.

"It has truly been a pleasure to have them join us and we are so thankful for their effort and commitment both in and out of sessions." Spear Coach

The Catch-Up Programme for pupils at Sudell Primary School in Darwen is both an urgent COVID-19 recovery initiative and an opportunity for disadvantaged children from a deprived area to create a robust platform for future academic progress and success. The programme will provide one-to-one tutoring and coaching to support these children, whose existing learning gaps have widened significantly due to disrupted learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will ensure that they have the same chance to catch-up academically and to thrive as every other child in the UK, despite their backgrounds and the disproportionate effect of the pandemic.

Westside Young Leaders Academy (WYLA) provides support and early intervention for black and minority ethnic young people who are at risk of underachieving at school and of participating in criminal and anti-social behaviour. WYLA’s leadership programme, Raise the Bar, aims to address and challenge the personal and systemic barriers that have an impact on participants’ development and attainment. It will introduce enriching activities and interventions designed to teach key leadership skills, improve confidence and self-esteem, raise aspirations, improve presentation skills, develop a ‘can-do’ attitude, and help at-risk individuals, in particular, to fulfil their potential.

Young Brent Foundation (YBF) seeks to mitigate the emotional and mental health impacts of COVID-19 on young people in the African and Asian (Diaspora) and Minority Ethnic (AAME) population, a community that has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. YBF will put in place support, culturally appropriate counselling and therapeutic services to help improve the emotional wellbeing and resilience of particularly vulnerable communities on three estates in Brent.

Harrow Carers has worked to help deliver three new weekly groups: one focused on increasing academic attainment and the others with the aim of promoting mental wellbeing for carers aged 16–18. In addition, Harrow Carers has developed a collaborative programme of support with Harrow College to support young carers in gaining employment and moving into further education.

IntoUniversity provides support for students from vulnerable communities to catch up on lost learning resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. It does this through after-school sessions and by helping young people apply to university. Funding provided by Shaftesbury Enterprise this year has helped deliver transformational programmes at the charity's Brent Centre. The team discusses some of the highlights: "We've recruited 40 new Academic Support students and hit over 200 mentoring meetings, which is a fantastic achievement for the team for this academic year! During the spring term, we recruited two new schools, John Keble (primary) and Wembley High Technology College (secondary) and have enjoyed virtual workshops with them. We've supported 73 Year 12 and 198 Year 13 students this academic year on a range of subjects ranging from writing CVs to university applications. The video discusses the impact of the IntoUniversity centre in Brent and why Harrow School’s support means a great deal to us."

Place2Be provides a lifeline in seven schools in Hillingdon and Slough for children, and their families, who face challenges such as bereavement, bullying, domestic violence and family breakdown. It offers a range of interventions including long-term, one-to-one counselling for children with the most immediate mental health needs.

Magic Breakfast is working, over the course of one year, to remove morning hunger as a barrier to learning in two schools near Harrow School. It is doing this through the provision of a free, healthy, open-to-all breakfast. Each partner school, where 35% or more of pupils are eligible for free school meals, receives regular deliveries of nutritious food such as porridge, fruit juice and bagels. They also receive the support of a School Partner to help ensure that every child who needs to can access a healthy breakfast without barrier or stigma.

the jeremy lemmon project

The Jeremy Lemmon Project was established in 2019 with proceeds from Harrow School’s gala performance of Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre.

It supports drama training, creative collaboration and access to higher education across maintained secondary schools in the London Borough of Harrow.

Jeremy was an inspirational teacher and director of Shakespeare, staging a series of productions that explored shared-light playing conditions, and bringing Shakespeare's work to life for generations of students.

2021 saw the second iteration of the project, with students from Bentley Wood High School, Nower Hill High School and Whitmore High School joining boys from Harrow School in this year’s company – working practically on Shakespeare with the mentoring of actors from the Globe.

Disruption to rehearsals was, of course, a challenge to this cohort, but a combination of group and individual coaching sessions launched the project online in the spring, with an ambitious and varied monologue-sharing in March.

When the group could finally meet in person in the Summer term, the strong ensemble dynamic was already established, and a glorious, celebratory sharing of extracts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream in June was the first performance to take place in front of a live audience in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on the South Bank.

In times of social isolation, when many students spent considerable time away from their peer groups, we were especially proud of the strong sense of ensemble this project maintained. Despite, at times, being physically separated, Jeremy Lemmon company members connected with one another through a shared response to Shakespeare’s words. We look forward to the continued development of the project in the years ahead, building on what we have learnt and the strength of relationships between the schools involved.