Knife Crime solutions trialled in key areas
A new model for solutions to knife and gun crime is being trialled across the country outside the provision of an otherwise dysfunctional government immersed in Brexit
Contour Education Services, a national player in character education, is working with the Challenger Trust, and Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands, to provide a range of positive activity for young people who may be tempted into gangs and crime.
CEO Charles Rigby, commented this week:”children most at risk of negative activity often attend the schools with least capacity to offer them alternatives. This is why middle class kids get to do all the fun things, whereas socially immobile families get second best. At Contour we are developing management solutions for schools with high levels of deprivation, so they can offer a wider and deeper range of opportunity for their students without having to buy in expensive programmes which are either unaffordable or unsustainable “
A big part of the agenda is to source and deliver trips away from school which are lower cost and therefore more accessible, combined with grant and subsidies. This year Contour expect 500 pupils to travel on ski trips which cost around £500, 100 to the Himalayas at under £2000, and thousands on shorter excursions such as bushcraft or local treasure-hunts with community service which are a few pounds or even free. Such trips represent a “life journey “ to combine with a “learning journey” at school, and many teachers believe the trips inspire self-confidence which supports attendance at school, good behaviour, and attainment itself.
Other areas in which the schemes are being trialled are Gateshead, Bedford, Southend, London and Reading, where Contour are working in partnership with private schools as part of their public benefit agenda.
Next year sees a special project to send 50 young people across the Atlantic in celebration of Mayflower400.
The programme is designed to address school capacity in providing more than simply exams for pupils who experience poverty of opportunity
Such change will enable thousands of young people to gain access to opportunity currently the domain of the middle class