City slicker brokers good deal for state school pupils

HELPING HAND: The social enterprise EduKit is helping schools to raise the academic standards of state school pupils

TALENTED PUPILS from state schools often fail to get the targeted help they need to achieve their potential but a new project launching tonight aims to change all that.

Entrepreneur Nathalie Richards believes many children can achieve significantly more if they are connected with high-quality, local youth programmes offered outside of school.

Richards, chief executive and co-founder of EduKit, gave up a high-flying City career to set up the London-based social enterprise that ensures students can access the extra help they need to succeed academically.

It is funded through schools’ pupil premium budgets – additional funding schools are given for children and young people eligible for free school meals. Primary-aged pupils get £1,300 while secondary-aged pupils get £935.

EduKit aims to take pressure off hard-pressed teachers by allowing projects in the community to access the right support. It does this using an innovative online platform that assesses student needs and matches them with local development programmes.

Richards said she was confident that this new project would provide the missing link between schools and the many services able to help kids become tomorrow’s leaders.

EduKit, which launches tonight (September 17), in Tech City, Shoreditch, in east London, already has hundreds of personal development programmes on their database.

Richards added: “There is just so much more that can be done to unlock children’s potential. Just think of all the talent in our schools who are not achieving the best results they could.

“We are missing out on creating the next generation of business and political leaders, scientists and academics. What EduKit does is match up the children’s needs with the best people to address those needs.

“Best of all, our service is free for organisations registering programmes. In parallel, we have already formed partnerships with several schools across London, and are now calling on all organisations that support young people to register for free on our platform.”

Susannah Clark, director at Action Tutoring, is a registered user. “This is a much needed service and we’re excited about the way it will aid our collaboration with schools,” she said.

“Within a week of signing up, EduKit connected us with a new school that we were not previously working with who engaged us to help 20 students. We’re really looking forward to connecting with many new schools in this way.”