I am reaching the end of my working life and have been a teacher in London for many decades.
Now comes the time for thinking through what to do next. I am seriously thinking of setting up and educational charity in the next few years. Yes, I realise how difficult and expensive that is, but I have the rest of my life to dedicate to it, so at this stage, lets think big!
I would be pleased to hear your ideas. I am thinking of the kids that fall through the gaps. I volunteer in a prison, and am well aware how many prisoners have educational problems. ADHD, dyslexia, trauma, illiteracy.
What could a charity do to reach these people and turn things around BEFORE they go to prison? Also, may after?
I am thinking about employing mentors. My idea is funding and/or providing a mentor to work in the isolation room of a school. A mentor that could maybe have a "caseload" of 10 or so and have an input into each one several times a week. Educational input, looking at their work with them, individual tuition, and doing the same work as is being done in lessons, but on a one to one basis, to give the child a boost, and to make them feel more important. It would have to be with the child's agreement, obviously. These mentors could be maybe employed by the school but funded by the charity? Some sort of join recruitment? It needs to be a long term appointment, as one of the issues in secondary schools at the moment is how transient so many relationships are, due to the high turn over of teachers.
And in prison? Educational mentors? Or some sort of therapy? I don't know much about therapy, but I have wondered in the past whether it would help if it was available to some prisoners? Any suggestions?
Of course the problem here is transience too. Prisoners move around a lot. So maybe therapists that could move visit many different prisons? Or a network of therapists that could continue with the work started in one prison? Ideally the therapist would be able to visit the new prison, but of course pragmatically, it is likely to have to be a mixture of both.
What do people think? Thank you for any input.