Hackney’s Boxing Academy has been named “alternative provision school of the year” at the TES Schools Awards.
The centre, in Hackney Grove, teaches teens aged 13 to 16 who have been excluded or threatened with exclusion from other schools, using sport to engage them.
In 2016, 80 per cent of its pupils achieved five GCSE passes, a score above the national average for alternative provision schools. In the same year, 100 per cent of the academy’s leavers went into further education or enrolled for an apprenticeship.
Principal Anna Cain said: “The staff, governors and pupils at the Boxing Academy are pleased as punch with this award. We have built our school on the values and ethos of boxing as a force for good. To receive recognition at national level is wonderful.”
Started in 2007, the Boxing Academy taught four pupils who had been excluded from other schools. Ten years later, the register has grown to 40.
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