Akademi receives BBC Children in Need grant

Supporting our work in SEND schools.

Our Reach Out and Reveal Project has been awarded a grant of £42,000 over three years by BBC Children in Need. This grant will fund our work with children and young people aged 11 to 15 years at Wembley Manor School, a special secondary school located in the London Borough of Brent.

All pupils at the school have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) and associated learning difficulties, including challenges related to communication, speech and language, and multisensory processing. Every pupil on roll has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), and require support with emotional regulation, sensory integration, and social interaction. Wembley Manor provides a highly supportive and structured environment, but opportunities for creative self-expression, movement-based learning, and non-verbal communication remain limited due to the specific and complex needs of the students. Akademi aims to fill this gap. This stage of adolescence makes such intervention particularly valuable, as students are navigating key aspects of identity, socialisation and emotional development through puberty.

This grant will fund sessional salaries for one lead artists and one support artist, including the cost of two days training.