By Charlotte Webster-
Teachers at 27 primary schools are being trained to provide nine one-hour lessons that focus on resilience, emotional development, stress and self-esteem.
The scheme initiated by Barnado’s charity in association with Waltham Forest Council, aims at providing young people will greater support from a younger age thanks to a new council partnership to tackle the root causes of youth violence.
The children’s charity has been funded by the authority to supply a much needed level of life skills lessons for primary school children, enabling them to be emotionally stable and confident, more resilient, and prevent children from becoming involved in youth crime later in life.
With the spate of violence in London and around the Uk, the scheme is a brilliant one designed to develop a balanced and well informed outlook to life and their future.
INFLUENCE
The excellent scheme also hopes to train these young pupils well enough to influence their peers out on the streets will be able to signpost services and stop teens from going down the wrong path.
Ms Hobman said: “For every £1 spent on Life Skills, the council will save £25 on other services further down the line, such as mental health support.
“It will be hugely money saving for the council. We’re hoping to reach these children early and want to roll the scheme out to secondary schools in future.”
The scheme is currently focusing on Year 4 pupils, and is to be rolled out to Years 5 and 6 over the next two years. Sources told The Eye Of Media.Com that the programme will reach up to 10,000 pupils over the next three years. The entire scheme will costing just £45 per pupil.
FUNDING
Young people from the borough’s Young Advisors group are to be funded by the Mayor of London’s Young Londoners’ Fund to conduct peer patrols out on the borough’s streets.
The scheme, known as Streetbase, is based on a model used successfully in Southwark for the last 10 years. The group will talk to other teens, encouraging them to make use of local services and avoid a life of crime in future.
Members of the Young Advisers are all local young adults some of whom have either experienced, witnessed or played a part in youth crime in their past. Some members have been in prison before and turned their lives around.
It is hoped these young people chatting to their peers out on the streets will be able to signpost services and stop teens from going down the wrong path.
K