A new £20m Department of Education programme to tackle educational disadvantage in communities was outlined to councillors at a meeting of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council’s Community Development Committee in Mossley Mill on Monday evening.
Linsey Farrell, Deputy Secretary for Education Policy and Children’s Services at the Department of Education, said the ‘Raise’ programme will “tackle educational disadvantage in a locality based way” during the next two years.
Areas set to benefit are Antrim; Ards Peninsula; Ballymena; Belfast; Carrickfergus; Coleraine; Derry/Londonderry; Dungannon; Enniskillen; Limavady; Lisburn; Lurgan and Craigavon; Newry; Newtownabbey and Portadown.
“Raise is about trying to identify barriers and remove those. We are looking for those in the community that can work with schools in terms of wrapping around the child a whole community approach to education,” Linsey stated.
“For far too many children, it can depend on their postcode, it can depend on their family. Raise is a whole community based approach where we want to see every child and young person happy, learning and succeeding and all getting the best possible start regardless of their background.
“For children, their family can have a huge degree of influence on that child’s life. This programme will have focus on working with families in terms of how they can support the educational journey. We want families and carers to be really involved with a child’s learning.”
Linsey went on to say areas were identified for inclusion in the programme based on a range of factors including GCSE attainment, number of pupils in receipt of free school meals, special educational needs and absence rate.
She indicated it is expected to reach 48,000 pupils, including 2,000 in Antrim and Newtownabbey working through “mechanisms already in place”.
Antrim SDLP Councillor Roisin Lynch asked when the initiative will be “up and running” and something could be seen “on the ground”
Linsey said teams are going out to engage with the community and schools to start developing plans, adding that programmes will “respect the work of existing networks”.
Airport Sinn Fein Cllr Maighréad Ní Chonghaile, principal of Gaelscoil Eanna, Glengormley, said:
“Schools are in a desperate situation at the minute. Our attainment levels are worse than ever before, social and emotional difficulties are greater than ever before. Issues among families are bigger than before.
“Schools do not feel wrapped around at the minute. We feel we are at the coalface. We are fire-fighting all day, every day. We do not feel much support or help coming in. We can’t solve all the issues.”
Cllr Ní Chonghaile asked what the Raise programme will “look like for schools”. She highlighted increased vulnerability among children since the Covid pandemic but “no professional development or buffer”.
“It appears to me that the Department bounces from one initiative to the next,” she commented.
Linsey said she would be “more than happy” to visit the principal’s school “to talk through some things the Department is working on at the minute” and Raise would be an opportunity to “look like whatever the locality needs to look like”.
She stressed it “needs to make a difference to a child’s life”.