YOUNG LIFE
Young Life are an international organization who reach out to High School students around the world. One of their Youth Workers, Dan is in school every Thursday to mentor Year 11 students in the morning and build relationships and support others at lunchtime through his football and lunchtime club.
PRINCE'S TRUST
The Achieve Programme helps our Key Stage 4 students to boost their confidence, learn new skills and work with their friends on a group project. The Programme is completely flexible and students will study the following projects:
• Delivering a community project and making a real difference in your local area
• Learning all sorts of new skills to help with meeting new people and building your confidence
• Taking on a business challenge to put your entrepreneurial skills to the test
• Improving your knowledge and ability to look after yourself and live a healthy life
• Top tips to help you write the perfect CV and get ahead in your career
EAST BELFAST ALTERNATIVES
East Belfast Alternatives is a local restorative justice agency who offer a wide range of support in the local community. At Key Stage 3, Barry, works with our junior school pupils on the DARE Project to encourage and motivate our students to have high aspirations.
Barry has also recently started a Restorative Mentoring Programme with students in Key Stage 3 and 4. Furthermore, EBA also supports pupils in Key Stage 3, as part of our Life Skills and LLW curriculum.
YMCA
The YMCA are long-standing partners with Breda Academy and have built up significant relationships with both staff and pupils.
Their overall aim is for young people to achieve an increased value of themselves and others. Some of the areas they explore are identity, stereotypes, sectarianism and discrimination through the Key Stage 4 curriculum.
DREAMSCHEME
DREAMSCHEME
Dreamscheme is a youth development organisation which is based in Newtownbreda and aims to transform the lives of hard-to-reach and at-risk young people. As well as providing diversionary and developmental youth programmes in local communities such as Milltown, Belvoir, Breda and Braniel, Dreamsheme also provides a mentoring programme of youth support within Breda Academy at Key Stage 3 and 4.
The programme aims to:
(a) affirm young people, encourage ambition, build potential and promote self-worth
(b) connect young people with their community and encourage active youth citizenship, and
(c) develop young people’s life skills and leadership ability.
In addition, our new Community Support Partnership Programme is designed to provide community-based support for students who are experiencing barriers to learning and engagement.
At Key Stage 4, the Learn to Thrive Programme provides support and strategies for small groups of students regarding their emotional wellbeing to guide them through their GCSE studies.
Furthermore, our pupils can access support with their studies and homework after school every Monday and Thursday in the Dreamscheme Centre in Newtownbreda.
More information about Dreamscheme can be found at www.dreamschemeni.org.
LOCAL COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Natalie Phillips, youth worker at Willowfield Parish Church, helps coordinate a number of local churches coming into Breda Academy through detached work on a Tuesday lunchtime and running the Scripture Union on a Thursday lunchtime. The Churches involved are Willowfield Church, Breda Church of Ireland, Newtownbreda Baptist and McCraken Memorial, with Scripture Union representatives supporting Breda staff at SU.
FAMILYWORKS
FamilyWorks is the school counselling service which offers our pupils additional support through weekly counselling sessions. Pupils can self-refer or be referred by their teacher or parent for help to deal with any emotional and behavioural difficulties to help make more informed choices or decisions.
THE EA YOUTH SERVICE
Youth Workers form the Education Authority come into Breda Academy to deliver the Learn Together and ENGAGE Programmes across Key Stages 3 and 4 and also provide the Personal Development curriculum across the school.
We are proud of our links with other agencies including Start 360, DAISY, Youth Justice, the Intercultural Education Service (IES) and Willowfield Youth Workers who also provide valuable support as part of our Pastoral Intervention Programme.