Alan Ball still changing lives for Portsmouth teens

A pioneering football academy for disengaged youngsters has seen school attendance rocket from 15 per cent to 85 per cent.

The Alan Ball Football Academy in Portsmouth was launched in September to help disengaged Year 10 and 11 students in the city, who are at risk of becoming NEETs.

Run in conjunction with The Harbour School Portsmouth, it provides full-time schooling and has seen its first cohort gain a raft of nationally-recognised qualifications.

Many pupils have taken part in work experience programmes giving them confidence and motivation to move on to secure a job or further training in the future.  All Year 11 leavers have realistic post-16 options.

Nigel Himmel from SET Extended Learning - part of the Southern Education Trust - launched the programme.

He said: “We chose to name the academy after Alan Ball because he is legendary in the city and his World Cup winning passion, enthusiasm and work ethic is exactly what we were looking for to motivate these young people.

“The programme breaks the cycle of fear and failure in the students and builds trust and confidence.

“There is a misconception about behaviour and punishment cancelling each other out, they don’t. The more you punish poor behaviour the more fear you create and more misbehaviour will result.

“These students felt failure every day, they didn’t feel good enough, they had very little self-worth and it resulted in high levels of absence, suspension and in some cases exclusion.

“Within the academy they learn to play football properly and are taught by ex-professional footballers.

“They work hard in the gym on their strength and conditioning, they learn about diet and how the body works and reacts to stress.

“But more importantly they discover that feeling of being in a team. They feel part of something, they feel valued and they succeed.

“They feel safe, they enjoy school again and this helps build resilience – so much so that they start to engage in academic subjects and realise that they too can be someone.

“All leavers now have qualifications in Maths and English and have completed AQA-accredited units in football and fitness.

“It has prepared them for their post-16 futures, whether that is further education, training or employment.

“Previously they would have been NEETs – not in education, employment or training.

“We are also working with University of Portsmouth and in September they will be running part of their physiotherapy course from the academy.

“We are also introducing a similar programme based around boxing and have further plans to engage more youngsters.”