Boys Development Project

Boys Development Project Annual Report April 2015 to March 2016

The Boys’ Development Project was founded in January 2010 and was incorporated as a Social Enterprise in March 2010, this report covers our sixth year.

Our principle aim continues to prevent some of the problems that impact on a significant number of young men. While our main focus is on education and achievement the approaches and methods we are developing and testing are as much about the ways that parents and teachers relate to boys as of the boys themselves.

We have tried to position ourselves at the point at which common problems and issues start to emerge. This has been in sharp contrast too much of the work we have carried out in the past (often crisis related and when problems had become more complex and entrenched). About 80% of our work this year has been preventative in nature and aiming to be early interventions in the lives of boys and their parents.

Most of our work has continued to focus on 4-6 year-olds within schools. The evidence suggests that if children (but boys in particular) get off to a good start within school they are more likely to achieve and if they get off to a poor start they are more likely to spend the rest of primary and possibly secondary catching up.

Our focus has continued to narrow from last year and has concentrated primarily on our Stand Out Boys Project (SOBP). After two years of funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation where we offered this project to schools for free, we have now been funded directly by the schools themselves. Our intention this year was to broaden our delivery and we have been working in eight schools. We have worked in five Lewisham Primary Schools (Childeric, Stillness Infants and Myatt Gardens where we were previously, plus St John the Baptist and Holy Trinity). In addition we have been in three Southwark schools (Southwark Park, Pilgrim’s Way and St Paul’s). While we have primarily been targeting boys in reception who 'stand out', some of these schools have also asked us to work further up the school.

Project: About Boys Course (ABC 0-5) Funding: Children’s Centres and schools ABC is an eight-hour (four-session) programme that targets mothers with sons aged up to five years. The themes are gender differences, boy’s development, discipline and boundaries, motivation, communication and boy’s transition into school. During the last year, because of our focus on the Stand Out Boys Project, we have only delivered one course in London [11], and our current accredited trainers list is 120 (see website for full list). For further information go to: http://www.boysdevelopmentproject.org.uk/abc0- 5pro/

5-11 Projects Project: About Boys Course (ABC 5-11) is an eight-hour (four-session) programme that targets mothers with sons between five and eleven. The themes are gender differences, boy’s development, discipline and boundaries, motivation, communication and boy’s achievement. During the last year we have not had time to deliver any further courses. Our current accredited trainers list is 32 (see website for full list). For further information see: http://www.boysdevelopmentproject.org.uk/abc0- 5pro/

Publications We have been too busy on our school’s work to produce any further publication this year. We are currently writing a Boys and Motivation Booklet and Boys, Rewards and Punishment Factsheet, which we expect to publish later in 2016. We are also in the process of writing up the Stand Out Boys Project for publication in at least three journals / magazines.

Our plans for the coming year While we expect to continue the delivery of Stand Out Boys into some schools, we will also be training up other schools. We have already been booked by six schools in Bristol to deliver training to staff and will be offering more in the coming academic year.

We will continue to train and accredit professional workers to deliver the ABC 0-5 and 5-11. With both children’s centres and primary schools looking to skill-up their staff we are optimistic that if budgets are available we will increase our list of accredited trainers.

We also plan to write and publish the following: 1. Schools work articles for practitioner publication and two academic journals. 2. A publication targeting parents addressing ‘boys and motivation’. 3. Two articles adding to the evidence-base of boy’s development.

Who we are? There are currently three directors of the Boys’ Development Project, they are:

Neil Davidson is employed as a Sex and Relationships Education Consultant in Bristol. Simon Forrest works in the School of Medicine and Health at Durham University. Trefor Lloyd is the projects development worker for the Boys’ Development Project.