We are proud to report that this is our twelfth year in providing subsidised assessments for families from disadvantaged groups. Families with high learning potential children on universal credit, sickness benefit or low income are faced with a stark choice when they are trying to advocate for the needs for their children in school.
Whilst as parents they may have learned that high learning potential children need sufficient challenge in education to feel engaged and motivated to learn at school, it can be difficult to convey this to teachers who feel they have the professional expertise but who may never have been taught how to teach high learning potential children in their training.
Furthermore, since the response children have to boredom and disengagement at school is often negative behaviour – being disruptive in class, school refusal or simply day dreaming and lack of attention – it is often these symptoms which the school focusses on rather than the underlying cause. In many instances teachers are not even aware that the causes of poor behaviour can be due to high learning potential coupled with insufficient challenge. To parents trying to get the right recognition and provision for their children it can seem an impossible task.
An assessment of the child can be the first time there is an objective, independent and qualified acknowledgement of the needs the child has. Particularly if there is a masked special educational need, which can happen all too frequently.
However the cost of an assessment – whether that is a Potential Plus UK assessment or an assessment by an education psychologist can be an insurmountable barrier for a family in a poverty trap, and yet an assessment can be the trigger to change the negative cycles of behaviour and response, and can lead to a completely different trajectory for the child, and we have many instances over the last 55 years of our charity where this has enabled families and children to turn a corner to a brighter future.
So, our Opportunity Access fund, our new name for what we previously called our Scholarship fund, has made an enormous difference over the last 12 years to the many families who have been able to access a subsidised assessment to change the life chances for their children. We have carried out over 200 such subsidised assessments over this period at a total cost of about £80,000, and we are immensely grateful to the various donors who have made this possible – The Potential Trust our long term partner over many years, but also other generous funding bodies such as the Thales Charitable Trust, the Yusef Foundation, the Thomas and Rosemary Greenhalgh Trust, the N Smith Charitable Foundation, The Cuckoo Hill Trust, The Educational Foundation of Alderman John Norman, and many others. Thank you for investing in the lives of children who needed someone to believe in their future!
