DAMASCUS Youth Project
2022 grant recipients
The DAMASCUS project supported Yr 6 children from the villages of Milton, Steventon, Appleford and Sutton Courtney to make a successful transition to their secondary school. This was through focused interventions with a core group who could be at a higher risk of poorer school transitions or negative peer relationships, which can have long-term detrimental consequences.
Interview Case study: Focusing on the needs of children in the villages
“Nervous” is the word used most by children from the villages of Milton, Steventon, Appleford and Sutton Courtney when asked how they feel about moving to secondary school in September. “I just need people to be kind to me”. “I hope I will have a good friend to help me when I am in distress – and a good supply of stationery” are typical responses.
Changing school is a big step for all children, but those coming from the villages can be especially apprehensive, and post covid the children are more vulnerable and less resilient explains Dr Rita Atkinson, Chair of Abingdon DAMASCUS. These villages may seem affluent from the outside, however analysis of the Index of Multiple Deprivation data by postcode shows that there are significant levels of deprivation in some neighbourhoods which sit in the top 30% most deprived in the country with respect to lack of work opportunities and adult education, skills and training.
Understanding the level of need is critical says Rita, going on to explain that some children and young people experience multiple levels of disadvantage; they often come from low income families and have non-existent social mobility. This is also borne out by the high proportion of pupil-premium (funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England) children in the state catchment schools for these villages. The average across the three primary schools is approximately 22% compared to the national average for primary schools of 25%.
There are other needs that cut across socio-economic boundaries including the advent of digital immersion, including social media use and uncensored access to inappropriate websites that has occurred in a short space of time has also increased their vulnerability to Child Sexual Exploitation. The pandemic has only intensified the need for holistic support for young people’s mental and physical health.
This project , explains Rita, has really been driven by what parents tell us – that their children are not settling into the new school, their mental health is affected, that children can be cruel to each other at that age. The children have been well supported in the village schools but as soon as they step on to the school bus heading for Didcot they are in a different world, with much older children. Often they may not tell their parents or their teachers if they are experiencing bullying for example. These setbacks will have a future impact too and there is an increased need to build young people’s resilience, irrespective of other disadvantages at this critical stage as they make the transition to secondary schools.
The pilot project has been running workshops in the last term in the schools , moving from empowering the young people to talk about their hopes and fears, through to sessions on how to identify risks. Over the Summer we held activities to build confidence and leadership, and establish a relationship with the youth workers. During September youth workers will meet the children off the school bus in the villages so they can immediately talk through any issues, as well as weekly drop-in sessions where we can talk about substance abuse, healthy relationships, and sexuality.