DfE Funding has been available to help Pupil Referral Units tackle children getting involved in violent crime.

 “Our small community schools have made such a difference already, but the next stage in our development is to extend our support for our young people after school. There aren’t enough community provisions for young people in the evenings and at weekends so we want to develop our community schools as youth clubs and with our new team I want to be able to build projects and provisions around the interests of our young people in the hope that they will make positive choices for their future.”  Tuesday Rhodes 

The first of our holiday programmes began in February 2022, where the N-GAGE team ran sessions in music production, songwriting workshops and cooking skills. We've come a long way since then, with a full programme running over each holiday, including horse riding, climbing, ice-skating, college preparation & boxing. This academic year the team have offered 15 different activities over each holiday, culminating in our first ever 3 day residential to Kingswood in April 2023. 

Our pupils have been amazing, fully engaging in a range of activities, learning new skills and developing their social skills. 

Feedback from pupils has been overwhelmingly positive, with all of them indicating that without these activities they would have been at home. 

"made me so happy, I cried showing my Nan because I realised that I can actually do something in the future. The happiest I've ever been in my 13 years of living"

 

 

By giving these young people a chance to experience something creative and positive, it has broadened their horizons, brought out character and changed their perception of themselves. The whole team are pleased with how well things are going, and excited for what is to come. "Next Generation Achieving Greatness Everyday" - really sums up what N-GAGE is about, and how fantastic our young people are.

  Click on the image to listen to BBC Radio Sheffield Interview with Tuesday Rhodes