Deptford charity Positive Mental Attitude has helped more than 300 excluded pupils get back into mainstream education. Reporter SAMANTHA PAYNE speaks to co-founder Sandra Longville to find out more about how the education agency continues to turn teenagers' lives around.

EVERYONE knows some schools just do not provide the right environment for teenagers to find their academic potential.

Pupils who are slow at grasping parts of the curriculum often feel pushed aside by higher-achieving pupils.

Many get disillusioned about the education system and become disruptive in the classroom.

This often results in them getting excluded because they do not feel part of the school.

This is why Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) was established in 1996 to meet the high demand of excluded pupils from black and minority ethnic backgrounds in Lewisham.

The agency has established a track record of working with 311 young people in the past five years who do not access mainstream services and for whom there are few opportunities.

Its aim is to equip young people with the essential skills to either go back into education or enter employment.

PMA is also the first choice for schools in the borough to refer excluded pupils.

Staff at the charity in Deptford High Street, are presently working with five pupils who have been excluded from Forest Hill, Crofton Park, Abbey Manor and Deptford Green schools.

Joshua Burrell, 15, was excluded from Deptford Green Secondary School last June after having behavioural problems in the classroom.

He now attends PMA three days a week and gets one-to-one tuition for his English, maths and PE GCSEs.

He said: "It's better here than at school.

"I get on better with the workers here than with my old teachers.

"You get more one-to-one support and it will help me get to where I want to be.

"I especially like the sound and data course."

Another PMA student is Riccardo Marshall, who was excluded from St Joseph's Academy, Blackheath, last year for fighting with a fellow pupil.

But the 16-year-old was able to prepare for his GCSEs while at PMA and is now studying GNVQ business and London Open College Network Level One computing at Lewisham College.

He said: "If I hadn't gone to PMA, I may not be in college now.

"PMA helped me get back into St Joseph's Academy and pass my GCSEs.

"I want to study for the next couple of years so I can open up my own business one day."

The charity is also currently supporting seven unemployed young people, equipping them with IT and communication skills to get them back into the workplace.

Centre manager and co-founder Sandra Longville hopes to get bigger premises to meet the high exclusion rate in Lewisham.

She said: "There is a big demand for our services.

"One day we would like to get more space to accommodate these young people.

"We have taken up the responsibility of instilling positivity and morality in these young people."

Course information

THE activities of PMA's education programme for excluded young people are:

  • Basic and Key Skills aimed at improving learner's literacy skills through sound and data technology
  • Personal Development/Life skills course focuses on improving their approach to mainstream education environments and prepares them for employment
  • Re-integration and progression opportunities the charity establishes an agreement with schools to gain access to compulsory subjects in preparation for exams. This saves pupils from being permanently excluded.