Tom Hood School

Crisis can be a catalyst – working with the conflict can change individuals and help transform an organisation.

Easter 2007. Waltham Forest, one of East London’s deprived Olympic boroughs.

A teenager is fatally stabbed and another wounded in what is described as a gang attack on one of the borough’s many estates. The teenager who died was a student at this secondary school, though he had transferred to another school before he was attacked.

Leap Confronting Conflict met with the Head teacher shortly after the murder, and offered the school the opportunity to work with us on a Gangs programme – not because any of the students were alleged gang members, but because they had known the victim and lived on the estates where the gang activity was taking place. The school accepted the opportunity, and two projects were set up, one with young men and the other young women.

Both groups were taken to Brathay Residential Centre in the Lake District, at different times in July. The residential with the male group was very challenging, and was brought to a close early due to dangerous behaviour by some members. However, a local youth worker who had accompanied the young people during Leap training began to build up a relationship with three of the young men. During the summer holidays these young men began attending the youth club in the area, something that had not happened before. When the school returned after the summer break, the Extended Schools worker contacted Leap and asked if we could continue to work with them, as the three young men had requested more training.

Leap went back to work with the three, and coached them to run a workshop at a Leap London event. The school was also keen to hold an event for the local community and borough chiefs in January as the court case was due to open, with seven local young men charged with the murder. They particularly wanted to showcase the work the three young men had been doing with Leap.

The ‘gang of three’ led an introductory workshop at the school one cold January evening, and then the following day facilitated a 1 ½ hour workshop to 30 young people and about 10 adults at a PeerLink young persons’ training event in central London. According to evaluations from participants, both events were successful. The three young men, still only 15 or 16 years old, demonstrated their skills learned, their understanding about the choices they had made, and cascaded their learning through the medium of Leap’s training.

The school had selected young people for the programme who were on the edge of exclusion. Now, they are leading workshops across Year 7. The school reports improved behaviour, better chances of getting GCSEs, and a calmness that has come into year 11 and across most of the school. They are keen that what has been learnt by these three is not lost and can be shared through the whole school, and will now go on to work with Leap through Pathfinder to help set up a mediation project.

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