Partnership delivers new boarding school readiness programme for Looked After Children
Equal Education and Royal National Children’s SpringBoard Foundation (“Royal SpringBoard”) are working together to provide 1:1 online tuition for a number of Looked-After Children due to start new boarding school placements this Autumn.
With the help of local authorities, Royal SpringBoard has identified several care-experienced Year 11 students who are due to begin their fully-funded boarding school bursary placements in the Autumn term, for whom they are making available an online tutoring programme to be delivered by Equal Education.
The tuition will take place over a 10-week period this summer in order to prepare the students for starting their A-levels at their new boarding school placements. Lessons have started in a range of subjects, from Mandarin to Biology.
With many of the students in the programme not having had access to continuing education since March, students reported that they enjoyed their first lessons back and tutors were very impressed with their engagement.
Equal Education provides care-experienced children and those with special educational needs (SEND) with mentoring and tutoring programs designed to instil confidence and improve outcomes.
Royal SpringBoard provides disadvantaged and vulnerable children with the opportunity to attend boarding schools on fully-funded bursary placements across the country.
Both organisations are committed to increasing equality of opportunity and providing life-changing interventions for vulnerable children and believe in the vital importance of a strong education.
In light of the coronavirus pandemic and widening inequalities in education, this takes on a new importance. Public private partnerships provide an important way of increasing access to quality education provision for disadvantaged groups.
“By working with organisations with shared aims and values we can achieve more. This partnership will help Royal Springboard pupils feel more confident about their A-levels at a time when their education has been massively disrupted due to Covid-19”.
Further information
To date, the Royal SpringBoard has helped 716 students, who report that their bursaries have changed their life for the better (92%) and have greater confidence that they will succeed in life (89%).
Equal Education has a network of over 500+ fully qualified (QTS or equivalent) tutors and has reached over 1200 young people (KS2-A-level) since forming in 2012. Since lockdown, EE tutors have delivered 5,500 hours of tuition online to over 100 young people.