A football charity is helping a struggling Croydon school tackle issues of poor pupils behaviour and attendance.
Football Beyond Borders (FBB), a charity which aims to use the power of football to overcome social barriers, has been working at Archbishop Lanfranc Academy for the past year.
Archbishop Lanfranc, in the bottom 5% of London schools and deemed as ‘failing’ in a recent Ofsted report, identified the correlation between troublemakers and their participation in the school football team.
The original aim of the scheme was to provide homework assistance for 12 year 8 students, but has since expanded into a large-scale mentoring scheme which now sees 25-30 students attend hourly sessions each Friday.
Head of year 7 and football team coach Tom Bateman, 27, head helped to establish FBB during his university days and saw the school as the perfect place to pilot the scheme.
MENTORING SCHEME: The group first started as a weekly homework club
He said: “The school was very receptive to any people coming in to offer alternative support and the kids have been really positive.
“When we were first starting the programme this time last year they were quite sceptical.
“A lot of them have been promised things in the past but have been let down, so it’s understandable.”
Mr Bateman explained that it first launched as a weekly homework club but has now expanded to incorporate football.
He said: “The first couple of months were quite tricky, but they were promised they’d be taken on a football tour to Scotland if they improved and since Scotland they’ve loved the programme.”
The inception of the FBB programme coincided with the 12 targeted pupils’ attendance rising to an average of 95%, above the national average of 94.5%.
SMELLS LIKE TEAM SPIRIT: The boys get together and play football
It has also seen the number of ‘behaviour points’ handed down to these students decrease by one-third since the beginning of the academic year.
Mr Bateman feels the impact of FBB, and the sense of purpose given to the year 8s, has had a profound effect on their attitude towards school life.
“It’s more than football. We’re helping them to grow as individuals,” he explained
“We’ve had a big turnaround in behaviour and the school is really impressed with the results.
“A lot of the boys say they have a reason to come to school now and have more pride in what they are doing.
“Experiences like doing the FBBTV programme help them to have more pride in themselves and hold their heads higher.”
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: Croydon kids get involved
Opportunities presented to the children, such as the chance to produce and present a YouTube programme and go on football tours, are experiences they enjoy.
They are assisted all the more by links with England star Rachel Yankey, Queens Park Rangers captain Joey Barton and Sky Sports football pundit Guillem Balague.
Balague, a man with connections all over the football world, is a patron of the charity and has worked hard to foster relations between the charity and external partners.
The boys have been offered a trip to Sky Sports News later this term, as well as a tour to Barcelona if their behaviour continues to follow the right path.
The ultimate goal of FBB is to help use the power of football for the benefit of children from all backgrounds, something which Tom feels isn’t sufficiently done.
With the recent revenue hike in the Premier League, as a result of a record-breaking TV deals with Sky and BT, the charity are hoping that people lower down the hierarchy in English football will feel start to feel the benefit.
SUPPORT: One Football Beyond Borders coach chats with a pupil
“A very small percentage of that money is currently going to grassroots football,” Mr Bateman explained.
“One of the reasons we exist is because we don’t think football makes the most of the power it has – as a whole the game could do a lot more.
“The game has so much gravitas among young people – it’s something we are keen to highlight that not much of that money reaches grassroots football.
“Our goal is for people to get more opportunities, and for football to be used for good.”
FBB are looking to expand the programme into other schools away from Archbishop Lanfranc, and get the pupils to become future coaches.
He said: “Ideally what we would like would be for the boys to become coaches, and see it become circular – we would like to carry on growing is as much as we can.”
