Red Balloon Learner Centres

At Red Balloon staff and students know that learning can only take place when students feel safe, heard, and emotionally and physically healthy. All students have access to and are encouraged to speak with, BACP-accredited therapists. These sessions are timetabled directly into students’ days, because staff and students at Red Balloon believe wellbeing is equally as important as academic success. In a typical day, other wellbeing activities look like healthy home-cooked lunches, spending time in nature, or taking part in specific wellbeing activities like yoga, equine therapy, or music.

Young people who come to Red Balloon have been self-excluding from school, often for months or years. Some young people have even become too anxious to leave their house or rooms for months or years on end. In this process, they become increasingly isolated from any kind of community. At Red Balloon, students are given help to start building trusting relationships again, whether this is with teaching staff, Link Mentors (a professional who acts as a bridge between families, students and any professionals involved in the students’ care), or other students. This is done at the individual student’s pace and with their full consent. For students in physical Centres, this may mean playing games in the lounge area with other students and staff, eating lunch in the communal dining spaces, or progressing from 1-to-1 lessons to group lessons with 2-5 other students. Social re-engagement may also take place in the wider community with trips to museums, zoos, sporting activities or volunteering opportunities. The social re-engagement opportunities also provide a way for students to engage safely in some of the activities they may have missed out on when they were self-excluding.

At Red Balloon of the Air students’ will be working towards participating in social activities, like cooking or origami sessions, at the student hubs in Milton or Essex. However, many of these students will not be ready to come into these student hubs when they begin at Red Balloon of the Air. Their engagement may start with online text interactions with staff, some in person interaction with their Link Mentor, and working with a therapist to challenge their anxieties. All staff meet students at their comfort level and begin working forward from there.

Students that have been out of education for months or years have often missed out on key learnings that would enable them to sit exams. However, Red Balloon’s answer is not extra hours of remedial tutoring. For many students mainstream education was a traumatic experience and their zeal for learning needs to be restored first, in order for them to readily absorb and truly engage with learning again.

Red Balloon takes a unique approach by having students work with staff to negotiate their curriculum. This means students become an active part of their own learning. By giving them some choice and autonomy, and supporting them to explore their interests and passions students become more engaged and motivated. Using this approach and very small class sizes, teaching staff are able to get students back on track academically and taking exams or gaining other qualifications. Red Balloon can assist students through Key Stage 4 and will create environments which aim to reduce the stress of taking GCSEs. Students can also earn other qualifications such as ASDANs, BTecs, and Technical Awards. Students may also study subjects with no intention of taking an exam which fosters wellbeing, lifelong learning and enjoyment.

Red Balloon has operated in Cambridge for over twenty-five years. Today, Red Balloon Cambridge is made up of two smaller Centres, which together have support for up to forty young people based in and around the Cambridgeshire area. They organise trips and visits throughout the year, ranging from short walks to local shops museums, to longer trips to London. Red Balloon Cambridge currently has fourteen subjects on offer but, like all Red Balloon Centres, it is often possible for extra subjects to be added should a student have a particular interest.

Based in Harrow, Red Balloon Northwest London supports up to twenty young people in the Northwest London area. Students are able to take advantage of being in the heart of the capital with trips to local museums, volunteering opportunities and access to Harrow School’s sports facilities. Assisted by Ben Bullen Adventures, many of the students take part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award which further supports their empowerment, confidence and opportunities to participate in new activities. With ten subjects on offer (and the flexibility to cater to additional interests), students can consistently engage with new material and find their passions.

Red Balloon Norwich is nestled in the centre of town providing refuge to up to forty students in the old Victorian property. Students are just minutes away from libraries, museums and sporting opportunities. In addition to having access to trained therapists, students at Red Balloon Norwich each have a Mentor that supports them in any way they need it. With 22 subjects to choose from, including animal care and citizenship, young people have the opportunity to gain all kinds of qualifications from GCSEs to ASDANs to technical awards.

Situated across from Reading College, Red Balloon Reading assists up to 24 young people in finding their feet and getting back into learning. In addition to art and music therapies, students have access to equine therapy at the local equestrian centre. With seven subjects on offer students have the opportunity to gain a range of GCSE qualifications and awards. As part of the wellbeing and social re-engagement strands of Red Balloon, students participate in sporting activities such as boxing, kayaking, and fencing in town, and are encouraged to join trips to museums, zoos and cultural sites.

In 2022, Red Balloon’s fifth physical centre will open in Worthing for young people in the West Sussex area struggling to cope with mainstream schools. A generous benefactor has provided the property, which will be home to up to twenty students. The Centre is near good transport links which will help students partake in extracurricular activities and trips that get them engaging with their community again.

Red Balloon of the Air is already providing support to young people in the West Sussex area, but with a new physical Centre, Red Balloon can expand the support offered to young people in West Sussex.

Inspired by the 1950s Australian radio education programme ‘School of the Air’, Red Balloon of the Air uses technology to bring education to students who cannot, or cannot yet, access one of our physical Centres. These students may be too anxious to leave their homes, their local Centres may be full, or perhaps they do not live near enough to any of the Centres to access this provision on a regular basis. Red Balloon of the Air eliminates these barriers by bringing education directly to the students. Students log in in real-time and staff use interactive and innovative technologies to engage students in their live learning. Like all Red Balloon students, they have access to BACP-registered therapists to help them work through their anxieties, concerns and any trauma. Students are also assigned a ‘Link Mentor’ who can act as a bridge between social workers, families, teachers, therapists, and any other professionals involved in the students’ care. Mentors are advocates for the students and can help them build trusting relationships, find their voice, and support the students’ personal growth.

Red Balloon of the Air is available across the southeast of England and is able to support young people aged 11-18. Red Balloon of the Air also has a post 16 provision called the Step4ward Programme which supports students aged 16-20 with an Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) to retake GCSE exams, access therapy, participate in the social re-engagement activities and/or catch up on any additional education they need to reach their goals.