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Nine to five school will mean business
A NEW school where youngsters wear business clothes and work nine to five is being planned in Hemel Hempstead.
The school will be laid out like an office – with pupils doing paid work each week with local firms – and rather than long school holidays time off will have to be booked.
The idea is to take teenagers aged 14 to 19 who are not doing well in traditional schools and offer them a different environment with an emphasis on work-related skills.
The scheme is the brainchild of Hemel Hempstead-based charity WorldShapers and it will be called the WorldShapers Studio School, tapping into the Studio School movement.
Project development officer Les Acton said: “The idea of Studio Schools came out of employers forever saying kids are leaving school and don’t have the employability skills they are looking for.
“The youth unemployment rate is going up and up. Youngsters don’t fit in and thrive within the existing system.
“There are businesses out there in Maylands and elsewhere that have the vacancies but are having difficulty filling them, particularly with youngsters.”
Mr Acton says they have identified a site for the school in a ‘deprived area’, which they hope to open next year, but they are waiting for permission from the government to go ahead. To offer support or learn more call 01442 269804.
Studio Schools are state schools and non fee-paying but have the status of academies, meaning they get their funding direct from government.
WorldShapers made a bid to open a Scandinavian-style school called Thrive last year but it was turned down by Whitehall.
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Weather for Hemel Hempstead
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 12 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
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Comments
There are 6 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
DacorumLad
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 10:07 PMAnyone see that movie called 'Village of the Dammed'
PrivateDancer
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 08:33 AMI wonder who the guy is that will have to have twenty wives and father eighty kids when this establishment opens ?
livewell
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 03:21 AMBusiness clothes? which business are they going to be dressing for? McDonalds? The city? Facebook? There is no such thing a business clothes, kids in hemel already wear a school uniform so ? As for worldshapers themselves, they are starting to worry me a little, they already have a foothold in two youth clubs in hemel and they run a school for excluded kids, they have already tried to open a school and been turned down and now they are trying to get this off the ground, they have shrinks on staff and are a religious group, i'm not sure i would want my kids involved.
longtime
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 03:27 PMI might have guessed it . . . just checked out "Worldshapers" and it is actually a religious organisation run by what my father would have called "devil dodgers"! The primary purpose of these organisations is to inculcate religion into the lives of young people. Now, if that's what you want, go for it but don't kid yourself that it is for the well-being of your child. Fanatics are fanatics whatever flag they go under.
longtime
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 03:04 PMDon't worry, we'll pay for them after all we pay for everyone else.
outofhemel
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 09:46 AMHow long before people start moaning that they can't afford their kids to have business clothes.......
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