Dylan, current student (featured in the Daily Star, 20th March 2012)
“I was getting into fights and arguments with teachers [in mainstream school], but now I’m looking forward to passing my exams and going on to college.”
Chandler, current student (featured in the Daily Star, 20th March 2012)
“If I was in mainstream school I wouldn’t be as fit. I got kicked out of school for fighting so at first it didn’t make sense to me to be sent to a place where you train in fighting. But now I can see it works. Boxing controls me and I’m not so easily wound up. I walk away from fights on the street because I know the consequences. I feel less angry and would think twice before an argument.
I’ve been coming for two years and I really love it – I actually want to come to school every day. When I leave I want to gain some building qualifications and go into construction. I’m good at fixing things so perhaps I’ll be an electrician or a carpenter.
I feel the teachers here understand us and allow us to express ourselves.”
Elliott, current Yr 10 student
"Before I begun at the Boxing Academy I was very badly behaved in my school and had a problem with authority and struggled to listen to instructions. At first impressions it sounds bad but as you speak to their staff and students you begin to realise this is the best place for you if you do not like the environment in a mainstream school. In the Boxing Academy the rewards and punishments are more suited to me for example rather then a detention you do press ups or a physical punishment and as a reward you can get money - prizes etc. If this placement was not offered to me I would probably be out all day smoking cannabis and getting up to trouble but now I'm here it has helped to get my anger out on boxing and get an education.
This is the first time I ever looked forward to going to school."
Charlie Taylor, DfE Expert Adviser on Behaviour
"The Boxing Academy is turning around the lives of children with serious behaviour problems, who have often been excluded from mainstream education. They have mixed the discipline and culture of boxing with a rigorous approach to learning and made it a highly successful school. I'm impressed by the work they do and the results they get – every one of their students this year is now in college building on the skills they will need for later life. I'm keen that other schools in similar challenging areas can learn from the principles that the Academy instil."
Angie, 2012 leaver, currently at BSix College
“Before I was not going to school everyday, being rude to my Nan and the teachers, not having a good education, not letting others learn and not making my family proud of me.
Now I am in school everyday, doing good, making my family proud of me and showing everyone that I have changed. I am putting a smile on my mum and my Nan’s face and if my dad was still alive he would have been very proud of me. After I get good grades in school I would like to go college and study music and after college I would like to be a solo singer, if not to work in a zoo.”
Chandler, 2012 leaver, now on a construction apprenticeship
"I was a little spoilt boy, just taking everything I wanted. I had my own little crew and we were going down the wrong road stealing, robbing, fighting people who we knew could not defend themselves and just being a bully to everyone.
Now I'm in school, trying to make up for all the work I missed out on in mainstream. I'm going to get a paying job so I can help out my mum with her bills and make her proud of me. I want to build my own house and provide for me and my family."
Chris, 2012 leaver, currently at HCC studying
"I was involved in gang rivalry for something called ‘protecting your ends’. A lot of my loved ones were stabbed or shot I saw myself next in the line to get hit by the other side. If I carried on going down this road I would have ended up stabbed or even shot. Life is more serious then I thought, it's not child's play where you cause trouble in your neighbour hood and get away with it because you're young.
Now seeing that the hood gave me nothing but trouble and problems, I am trying to stay out of it and educate myself. In the future I would like to have a good decent life and a family."
Emmanuel, 2012 leaver, now studying at Waltham Forest College
"I was a bad breed, trying to fix up in life but I kept getting distracted by others. I thought I was a bad boy. Now I'm in school with something good in my head I have improved my behaviour and I came second out of the whole school - I am aiming to be at the top. I will be going to college to do my A-levels in Business, Maths and English."
Dylan, 2012 leaver, now studying at BSix
"Now I am at the Boxing Academy I am doing well, coming into school everyday, paying attention in classes and getting my education. I got the most improved student award! I like going on trips with the Boxing Academy, having fun, learning boxing. I'm gonna get my GCSEs, stay away from prison, own my own company. I can get every thing I want in life, but the right way."
Mary Honeyball MEP, Claude Moraes MEP, Robert Evans MEP
"The Boxing Academy works in partnership with local schools and has had much success in dealing with the problem of crime and anti-social behaviour among 13-16 year olds in the Tottenham area. Haringey is in the top ten boroughs in the UK for crime and poverty. We believe that any investment in our youth is repaid many times over in the future and we therefore endorse the Academy and the work it does".
