An education that maximises the life chances of every student requires a rounded approach that cannot be confined solely to the classroom. Each year, the school identifies certain trips and activities which it would like all students to attend so that their lives can be enriched.

Trips and activities require significant funding and it is an added strain on families whose financial circumstances preclude participation. Students include those in receipt of Free School Meals and/or Pupil Premium. Each year the school raises funds to ensure that no student misses out on potentially life changing and affirming experiences.

This year the Foundation will fund FSM/PP students to attend the following activities where without financial support they would be unable to participate:

• Team Building – an away day to meet their peers and engage with staff in a more social environment for 30 new students in receipt of Pupil Premium
• Duke of Edinburgh Award – 50% subsidy for 32 students in receipt of Pupil Premium to complete the Bronze DofE award (match funding provided by the school)
• Theatre Trips – funding for 70 students in receipt of Pupil Premium to experience a trip to the theatre to enhance their GCSE learning to see a performance of the book or play they study in the curriculum

Trips/activities such as these are considered to be integral to the lifelong education of students.

A residential trip to a working farm in Devon for children in their final year (Year 6) will celebrate their friendships and mark the end of their primary school career. The trip will help to facilitate their transition into secondary school by developing independence, resilience, motivation and social skills as they work collectively as a team. Many students have never had the opportunity to travel outside London and experience the valuable educational and personally enriching benefits that such a trip can offer.

The farm has the mission to provide inner city children with the opportunity to escape from the city and experience a real-life working farm environment. The students will be participating in an impactful five-day residential programme where they will encounter firsthand experience of running a farm with the opportunity to engage in hands-on farming activity, with plenty of real-life learning and enrichment, while working as part of the farming team doing seasonal jobs.

The Foundation will support 24 children where the cost of attending the trip is prohibitive for their families.

The school identified post-Covid changes in the social interactions of pupils during extended playtime periods leading to pupils displaying fewer skills to imagine and invent games and interact positively.

An increase in pupils with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs, coupled with increased anxiety profile of several pupils, resulted in more complex social interaction difficulties and a greater dependence on adult interactions, rather than the peer play and socialising which is integral to a healthy personal, social, emotional and spiritual development.

The school researched opportunities for further personal and social development outside of the classroom and consistent with their approach of informed practice identified the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) Programme – an evidence-based, well established route for enhancing pupils’ playtime experiences – as the vehicle for changing pupil approach to play.

While the school will be making significant investment in the pupil playground experience, currently supported by a limited set of resources and games, the Foundation will fund the cost of training the mentor-supported improvement programme.

Full information about OPAL can be found via the following link:

https://outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/OPAL-Booklet-Outdoor-Play-2021-2.pdf

The Foundation has supported a new group of 48 secondary school students where families are experiencing financial hardship.

Grants have covered needs including providing items of school uniform, assisting with travel costs and ensuring students have an adequate meal before the start of the school day.

Grants are provided direct to schools who are responsible for administering assistance.

The Foundation has provided grants to support 34 secondary school students in Fulham experiencing financial hardship due to family circumstances, including three young members of refugee families.

The grants have covered various needs including replacing items of school uniform, assisting with travel costs, ensuring students have an adequate meal before the start of the school day and funding food, travel, clothing and accommodation to enable participation in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme.

Grants are provided direct to schools who are responsible for administering assistance.

An Alternative Provision school for ages 5-11 where 91% of young people are classed as disadvantaged, where most students have experienced adverse childhood experiences and trauma and have exceptionally difficult home lives.

A partner local Academy, where similar challenges are experienced, successfully piloted an Art Therapy programme using an on-site registered counsellor. Art Therapy was the preferred therapeutic approach because it is non-threatening and young people engage well with the ‘drop-in’ style provision, with many returning voluntarily on a weekly basis. Self-evaluation by students reported increased enjoyment of school and reduced stress levels as a result of the Art Therapy sessions. Staff reported improved behaviour and engagement with learning for those young people that attended.

The pilot demonstrated the value of having in-house Art Therapy support and sessions elicited a number of disclosures including suicidal ideation, self-harm, sexual exploitation and learning needs. Referrals were made to the appropriate agencies and additional support put in place. The involvement of a therapist where referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services occurred also helped streamline the process and prepared young people to better engage.

Despite the proven benefits, Art Therapy in schools is not covered by statutory funding.

The Foundation will fund a British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy/British Association of Arts Therapist registered Arts Therapist for one day per week for 20 weeks with a separate grant-making charity providing match funding for a further ten days of support.

The provision will be on a ‘drop-in’ basis where students can call in (or sessions be arranged in advance) to see the Arts Therapist on a nominated day of the week. It will be open to all students attending the Academy. In the longer term, it is the intention to apply for additional grants from other funders to maintain this provision.

Update: the Foundation has subsequently provided an additional grant to the partner Academy for a similar Art Therapy programme to support students aged 11-16 to cover a delay in their match funding application.

Many learners attending a local Academy have been unable to experience success within mainstream education, often in crisis and requiring a trauma-informed approach to engage in the curriculum. With barriers, such as SEND needs and poor behaviour the school’s approach to personal development in education aims to provide students with lifelong skills.

Providing musical education enables creative practice and social cohesion with other school students from mainstream education. Music and singing helps foster confidence and as the academy’s secondary-aged students are some of the most vulnerable in society, beginning with developing voice and breathing skills will have beneficial results.

Teaching students to write and develop lyrics and music, will assist with another key aspect in their journey of learning, as music in this form is not available due to budget constraints. It will help social cohesion with pupils from other schools, providing visibility of alternative ways to live and behave, and hopefully form friendships. It is further envisaged that students benefiting from this education will eventually be able to perform in public events.

The grant from the Foundation will provide a year of part funding for a singing teacher to run workshops over 25 weeks and 5 concerts as a joint initiative with a local church and private donations.

Musical education for young people in schools can improve and accelerate language development, provide emotional and physical benefits when bombarded by different situations such as declining grades or fights at home which can in turn lead to stress and depression and help the development of cognitive abilities – students who play musical instruments find it easier to solve mathematical problems.

Music that is taught and played in school is obviously interesting and uplifting. It promotes creative thinking among students, boosts memory, teaches forming social relations and working in teams and can be used to foster leadership qualities, coordinating between people with different personalities.

The Foundation will be funding musical workshops run by a professional singing team from Imperial College at a Fulham primary school leading to a performance with professional singers from a local church choir. The young choristers will be encouraged to perform two carols on their own alongside Christmas motets performed by professional singers, giving them the opportunity to experience musical singing in the context of a liturgical setting.

Hammersmith & Fulham are hosting 139 Afghan refugees who fled the country after the recent regime change. Twenty-five are students of secondary school age and will be attending a local Fulham school.

The students fled Afghanistan with very little in the way of belongings. Alongside the school, who will be providing school equipment, food and learning materials and members of the school staff who will be contributing financially towards their personal items, the Foundation will fund new school uniforms to help them integrate into the school.

A Fulham secondary school is creating a recovery plan to support students not just academically but also socially and emotionally as part of moving on from the effects of the lockdown. The number of mental health and wellbeing self-referrals since returning to school at the end of the second lockdown has doubled.

As part of their recovery plan the school has arranged to take a specific group of students, many with social, emotional and mental health difficulties resulting from lockdown, to Wales for an outward bound experience to develop relationships, self-esteem and rebuild a sense of community. The school’s vision is to ‘empower tomorrow’s women’ and in order for students to buy into and to value the experience they are being asked to make a financial contribution and will be undertaking their own fundraising activities alongside staff.

Some individual students are particularly affected by economic deprivation. A grant from the Foundation will provide support to enable 12 young women to participate in and benefit from the ‘Empower’ experience.