Tom's Trust has supported
Westside School: (www.westsideschool.org.uk)
Founded in 2006 as a charitable school, Westside School serves young people in Years 9-11 who have either been
permanently excluded, are at serious risk of permanent exclusion or have struggled to flourish in mainstream
due to complex needs. Most of the students come from Black or Minority Ethnic groups. The overwhelming majority
have Special Educational Needs and are on Free School Meals. The typical student may have had an extremely
disrupted educational background, lack a nurturing home environment and have missed learning general social skills.
Most have come to view educational establishments as threatening and adversarial places and have a history of
truanting, and many have a record of extremely challenging behaviour.
Tom's Trust gave Westside a grant to help buy equipment for an engineering workshop, to provide apprenticeship
training for some of the students.