Successful new pilot project to re-engage struggling school pupils – launched at Reaseheath College

Mainstream schooling sadly doesn’t work for everyone. Some pupils disengage completely, for a wide range of reasons, and this often leads to them ending up as NEETs (Not in education, employment or training).

I was delighted to attend an awards ceremony to mark the end of an amazing pilot project hosted at Reaseheath College, near Nantwich, involving Year 6 pupils from Wrenbury Primary School and Year 8 pupils from Malbank High School.

Fourteen youngsters, who were struggling in school, have found exciting new career prospects as part of the  new ‘Food, Farming and Futures’ project, which has reignited their interest in sticking with their school education, so they can eventually train for jobs in agriculture or food production. 

They have clearly loved their weekly visits to the college to try out some of the amazing job training on offer at the agricultural college.

Bread and cheese making, meat processing, countryside rangers, tree surgery, animal welfare – there are a huge range of brilliant careers on offer in our rural county that most youngsters have never even heard of.

I saw parents in tears, grateful the lives of their disengaged children have been turned around by this project. Their future is now bright!

Let’s hope Reaseheath College can find funding to turn this amazing pilot project into a regular alternative education offer for local children.