Jo Richardson School
Details about Jo Richardson School
Jo Richardson School, based in the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham, has a high percentage of 35% of pupils who receive Free School Meals. Within the borough, 2,400 children are on SEN support without a plan, indicating a substantial cohort whose needs must be met by schools without the additional resources an EHCP provides. This growing cohort of neuro-divergent young people, often with undiagnosed conditions such as ADHD and Autism are underserved and often conditions will be masked leading to high levels of anxiety, dysregulation, emotional-based school non-attendance or disengagement.
Details of the Project
The Far from the Norm project is a critically acclaimed Hip Hop theatre company which offer workshops to pupils, and in this instance, to KS3 neurodiverse girls, in particular those displaying SEMH characteristics, are at risk of disengaging with mainstream school and placed on behavioural monitoring reports. The programme will develop choreographic, holistic and vocational skills that will have both live performance outcomes and develop young people as producers of a short film of their lived experience championing their voice.
Delivery of project
The project commenced on Monday 29th June with a workshop for 25 Year 7 girls to introduce the aims of the project to a larger group of girls; from this a smaller cohort will be selected to process from September when weekly sessions will commence across the term.
