We are 8 young people from South Manchester who have been working throughout lockdown to follow through on our commitment to create a new supplementary school for South Manchester.

REKINDLE will open in September 2021, for young people aged 13-16 in South Manchester. The 4-8pm school will focus on providing the pastoral care, community support and critical thinking needed to safeguard young people and ensure they have the confidence and networks to soar. It will work with students who have not been given the opportunity to fall in love with education in their mainstream schools.

Our primary focus is to design an approach that offers care, support, connection, hope and aspiration. That pushes working class young people to believe they can be more, but first establishes the solid foundations to catch them when they fall.

An approach that first cares about what young people care about, where adults act as mentors and provide space for safe conversations. We have taken a practical approach. What do young people without many resources need? They need food. Good free food and homework support. Every night.

There is so much more to Rekindle. This is not a project that we have created because there is the possibility of funding available; this is our attempt to do education better and to prove that young people are capable of leading change.