Racing to School CEO, John Blake offers a personal view of a visit to a South London School to observe the work of the Dallaglio RugbyWorks charity

Just how many horses are there in Croydon?

Well, not the 200 I put down as my answer when a special horse-related quiz was introduced as part of a regular weekly session organised for a small group of pupils at the Harris Academy in South Norwood.

The seven young people on this group are beneficiaries of the charity Dallaglio RugbyWorks (DRW) that works with 12–18-year-olds that have either been excluded from school or on the precipice of that life-altering decision. The charity was set up by former English rugby union star and World Cup-winner Lawrence Dallaglio, and states that on average 220 young people are excluded from school each week, at significant cost to the state alongside the personal tragedy for those affected. Targeted and consistent interventions form part of DRW’s approach that involves working at Pupil Referral Units, Alternative Provisions and Youth Offenders Units, as well as within mainstream schools.

I was warmly welcomed by the DRW team of Fin, Bethany and Wes (a former pupil at the school) to observe the split session of fast-round general knowledge quiz questions in the classroom and then the real business: a hybrid of touch rugby and netball.

The young people were within Years 9 and 10 – formative times that move quickly and during which DRW wants to instil confidence and offer support for good outcomes for each beneficiary entrusted to them. A target of 7,000 interventions was set as a five-year goal in 2022, and this has already been carried over the line and converted with plenty of time left on the clock.  

Development Manager Dan Ley was a guest panellist at the recent Racing Together Industry Day and spoke with engaging honesty about his own pinball game of school life and exclusions, and how his involvement in rugby provided the footholds in his life that he is working to create for young people with similar challenges.

At face value, the Harris Academy felt gritty. Concrete staircases within a metal structure that comes across as stark and almost institutional. As the clock ticked between lesson breaks beautiful music started to flow through the corridors as pupils bustled from different classrooms. Hearing that for the first time brought about a real calmness and softened the whole atmosphere. The upbeat music had a soothing effect, and it gave way to Big Ben-like chimes as a countdown for stragglers taking a less than straightforward route from A to B. It seemed a simple but wonderful, communal idea to signal a switch of lessons by connecting to the joy the music. Better that than the harsh shrill of the ubiquitous school bell of all our youths.

Creating calm in that smaller group was the aim of the DRW team. The little I was told of the back stories of the young people I met was a reminder of the oasis that school life can provide against chaotic and inconsistent home lives, and other challenges that lurk once the music stops and lessons end.

To an outside observer, it seemed that each young person showed disengagement at one point in the day and there was boundary-pushing to varying degrees during the classroom-based quizzes. Watching the session unfold and joining in with the tricky task of recalling a beauty brand that started with the letter T or deciding if horses can vomit or not, it seemed that in their own way the group was finding a pace and comfort zone before they would give of themselves. This wasn’t rebellion, it was caution before commitment. Establishing trust is what Fin and the team had achieved over time, and the sharp and funny replies and thoughtful questions were soon flowing as the competitive edge took over.

There was one outlier. A young man barely lifted his eyes off the desk, lost in his thoughts and appearing to mark time during the session.  I learned in general about his experience, which when pieced together easily explained his silence and withdrawal. To see him just a few minutes later sidestepping and showboating with rugby ball in hand needed no evaluation form or KPI to confirm that the charity’s work was clearly getting through, adding some much-deserved joy to this young life. To all those young lives.

My guesstimate that 200 horses might be rubbing shoulders with Croydon residents was based on nothing more than a thought that surely some police horses service nearby football grounds, a vague memory of a military barrack, and the hope that a livery yard or two might occupy the weekends of the well-heeled of neighbouring Surrey.

Google, however, was not in the mood for my workings out and claimed that there are exactly zero horses in the Borough of Croydon. Debatable, but we all got that one wrong. I suspect, though, that all seven of those young people I was fortunate to meet could now offer some facts about the Grand National; give a view on what Royal Ascot calls fashion and know that running at 30 to 40mph is well within the capability of a racehorse, whether in Croydon or anywhere else.

Racing to School is planning to work with Dallaglio RugbyWorks soon.