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Sky announces two-year partnership with Sir Lewis Hamilton’s foundation, Mission 44, to address disproportionate rate of school exclusions amongst Black pupils.
Partnership forms part of Sky’s £30 million commitment to tackle systemic racism and make a difference in communities impacted by racism.
Builds upon the Hamilton Commission which showed the disproportionately high incidence of exclusions of young Black students and the impact on their education
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Sky, Europe’s leading media and entertainment company, is today announcing a two-year partnership with Sir Lewis Hamilton’s charitable foundation, Mission 44, that aims to address the disproportionately high rate of school exclusions among Black students in the UK. The partnership forms part of Sky’s £30 million commitment towards tackling systemic racism and will see Mission 44 receive over £1million during the two-year period.
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Lewis Hamilton is personally driven to help address disproportionate exclusion rates as a result of his own experiences with behaviour management practises at school. His foundation, Mission 44, aims to support, champion and empower young people from underserved groups in the UK to succeed by narrowing opportunity gaps with a focus on education and employment. Research from Mission 44 shows that Black Caribbean students are 2.5 times more likely to be permanently excluded compared with their White counterparts.
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Sky’s partnership with Mission 44 includes initiatives aimed at tackling the issue, including:
‘Preventing exclusions’ grants: grant funding for Multi-Academy Trusts to invest in interventions that reduce school exclusion rates.
‘Scaling impact’ grants: grant funding to support high potential or high impact interventions that prevent exclusions or improve trajectories of excluded students.
The ‘Included’ research project: a research project to amplify the voices of a group of excluded students to discover what support they need to achieve positive outcomes.
Early career insight programme: an early-career insight programme led by Skyto provide information, advice, and guidance on opportunities in the broadband and telecommunications industry for students at risk of exclusion and students already excluded from mainstream education.
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These initiatives build upon findings from The Hamilton Commission report, which was published in July last year and found that behaviour management practises within UK schools were disproportionately targeting Black students and having an impact on their educational journey.
SOURCE: SKY
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