Our People

As the Strategic SEND Lead for Really NEET, my passion is ensuring that we can support all our students whatever their needs. It is important to me that we understand each student and that we have a comprehensive transition plan to ensure a smooth start to the academic year. Through the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), meetings with each young person and their families, and contact with previous education settings, we can gather up to date information on their strengths and needs.

This creates a clear overview that forms a starting point as we work together to progress towards achieving their aspirations. Our strengths are close communication with home, working with each student to take ownership of their EHCP outcomes and a focus on their Progression Pathway. We aim to assess learners for exam access arrangements and conduct Irlen screening if this is identified as a need. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or your local SEND Lead.

Brooke teaches Art and supports with enrichment activities

Carla supports our offsite young people providing them with pastoral support and education, she also supports in enrichment activities

Claire oversees the programme ensuring the needs of young people are supported throughout their time on programme

Ellie supports our offsite young people providing them with pastoral support and education, she also supports in enrichment activities

Emily teaches Art and supports on enrichment activities

Emma ensures that all special educational needs are met, and she will support students in their annual reviews and PEP’s

My name is Emma and I have 12 years of experience as a SENCO in secondary education, supporting young people with Special educational needs to get the support they need to thrive. I have witnessed the frustration of young people who struggle with the demands that education places on them, with little or no adaptation for their needs. For the last 18 months I have been undertaking a research project, testing the impact of immersive online story-based English and Maths assessments as an alternative to traditional assessments.

Our assessments combine the principles of gaming, escape rooms and story-based assessment to create an engaging experience that reduces the anxiety of an exam environment. We have made assessments that adapt to the needs of those with SEND, so that they feel like they can succeed and that they are not ‘different’ just unapologetically themselves.

George supports our onsite young people providing them with pastoral support and education, he also support in enrichment activities

I’m Grace Radford, a professional youth
worker, with 20 years’ experience in youth and community work. It has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with Really NEET for the past five years and find a home for my passion – youth work! I truly believe youth work is a vehicle for change across society as a whole and not just for young people – change a young person’s life today and they can change the world tomorrow.

Gurpreet teaches Functional skills Maths. Entry level 1 – Level 2 and supports on enrichment activities

Hannah supports our offsite young people providing them with pastoral support and education, she also supports in enrichment activities

Helena oversees HR and Wellbeing at Really NEET, ensuring the project puts people first.

Born in the East End of London in an Irish Traveller family, I was confronted with a society (and family) where education was neither valued nor encouraged for people like me.

The empathy and kindness shown to me from the small few who supported me on my journey through education enabled me to thrive.
I left school at 11 years old feeling disheartened and with no aspirations for the future, but by the age of 16, I knew I wanted more for myself. I still wonder how I knew education was the key to a better life as at that point I never witnessed first hand the benefits of education. I had no role models or anyone in my life who pursued education beyond primary age, let alone university.
Just like some YP at Really NEET, I faced challenges in my life that couldn’t simply be forgotten or ignored when I stepped into a classroom. It was crucial for me to have caring individuals in my life who not only recognised my potential but were also dedicated to nurturing it. Eventually, I graduated from university with a 1st class degree, proving that little or no education doesn’t mean you’re not smart.

When I finished university, I knew I wanted to share my story with young people. I wanted to reach out to those who were beyond school age, lacked qualifications and feeling discouraged because mainstream education hadn’t suited them. I joined Really NEET in 2015 and with empathy and first-hand experience, I aimed to inspire and empower young people, demonstrating that despite the challenges, there are still paths to success and fulfilment.

With a clear vision and thanks to an incredible staff team, we are creating a tapestry of hope and success that will ensure young people feel empowered to embrace their unique talents and strengths. Together, we will foster a generation of confident and resilient individuals who will shape a brighter and more inclusive world.

Jack teaches Functional skills English. Entry level 1 – Level 2 and supports on enrichment activities

Jade supports our offsite young people providing them with pastoral support and education, she also support in enrichment activities

James oversees the culture and development of our 4 programmes, supporting the Project Co-ordinators and embedding our values in everything we do.

I am passionate about reading, learning, and helping staff and students reach their full potential through learning experiences and professional development.

We are fortunate to be an agile and innovative company where we recognise the importance of our culture and the wellbeing of everyone who works or attends Really NEET. Through this experience, we are open and adaptive to change and continually improve what we do while enabling our structures and guidance to support and empower personal and organisational growth.

Jane oversees Health and Safety and Safeguarding, she is also overseeing property development and leasing at Really NEET
As a child and adolescent my home life was chaotic and sometimes unpredictable due to external barriers that were outside of my control. This impacted heavily on my schooling, and I was often in fights or being suspended. My PE teacher at the time gave me a lifeline by introducing me to hockey as a constructive outlet for my free time and as a way to channel my stress in a positive way. I went on to captain my county for 6 years as well as play for many successful teams and it really helped me to navigate a tricky time in my life. As an adult I decided I wanted to be a positive influence in the lives of YP who may be struggling like I was, just like my PE teacher had been for me.

My journey at Really NEET started in 2015 as a volunteer, working in our original Sheffield project supporting learners with undiagnosed SEND needs that had been let down by the system. It was really rewarding, and I loved being alongside the team of likeminded people who worked at Really NEET. I was offered the opportunity to be a Sports Tutor on our brand-new Barnsley project at the time, from there I became the Barnsley Project Coordinator and a few years later I went on to become Director. I really believe in celebrating the lived experience within our staff team, everyone brings something unique to the table and we have one of the most skilled and capable staff teams that I have had the pleasure of working alongside, they really are an asset to our young people and our organisation.

Jaydon supports in lessons and is our student voice representative, we are extremely proud to say he was a previous student of ours that has progressed into a Really NEET team member

Katie teaches Functional skills English. Entry level 1 – Level 2 and supports on enrichment activities

Katy leads on the recruitment of new team members and programme finances

Kerry teaches Functional skills English. Entry level 1 – Level 2 and supports on enrichment activities

Lauren supports our offsite young people providing them with pastoral support and education, she also support in enrichment activities

Leanne oversees the programme ensuring the needs of young people are supported throughout their time on programme

As the Strategic Education Lead for Really NEET, my passion is to make education accessible for young people who struggled with mainstream education as education can be very complex and intimidating for many young people. However, at Really NEET, we believe that we can take this ambiguity and fear away from young people. As a result, the education pillar of the Change Programme is about unpicking the chaos within the young people’s minds and providing them with the tools to find their own golden threads through logic, reason and curiosity in a world that initially seems unfathomable, chaotic and sometimes even uncontrollable.

However, there is one thing we can control, and at Really NEET, we like to refer to this as the young person’s metaphorical backpack for life. We control the contents of this metaphorical backpack (what they take into the real world with them). We ensure it is packed to the brim with essential knowledge, numeracy, grammar, and vocabulary that they have rehearsed and can confidently deploy in multiple settings so that they can achieve their full potential.

Lydia supports our offsite young people providing them with pastoral support and education, she also support in enrichment activities

Mark ensures that all special educational needs are met, and she will support students in their annual reviews and PEP’s

Sanita teaches Functional skills English. Entry level 1 – Level 2 and supports on enrichment activities

Sophie oversees finances and sustainability at Really NEET, securing a long-term future for the project
The Origin Story: Ten years of domestic violence as a child led me to be pulled out of an education system that labelled me unteachable. Fleeing the violence by constantly moving around the country to finally be homeless and alone in the world by age 16. This was my reality at the time, but little did I know that change was afoot.

The Golden Threads: The story of Theseus and the Minotaur has stayed with me throughout my journey. Theseus was trapped in a labyrinth with no knowledge of how to escape, and a bloodthirsty Minotaur hot on his heels. All hope was lost until Ariadne left threads to lead him to safety. Ariadne threads are now a recognised philosophy that can be applied to life. It’s the ability to problem solve out of situations where all can appear lost. I like to call them golden threads. Essentially there are golden threads all around us, we just need to know how to look for them.

Threading together a new path: At 17 years old I was living in a homeless hostel surrounded by young people like me who felt excluded not only from education but from life and society itself. One tragic day set me on an incredible transformation of mind and self. My friend died from a drug overdose. Trying to revive him and having to recount to his parents his last moment in a coroner’s court significantly changed the way I viewed life and human vulnerability.

Instantly I recognised that something needed to change and that no person other than myself was going to be able to action those changes. I walked into my local college and asked to be enrolled. I met an incredible individual called Paul, a Sports Tutor at the college, he spent countless hours supporting me to make it through the very system I had felt let down by. Tragically, Paul had a terminal diagnosis of cancer, but still spent the last two years of his life supporting me, along with countless other people, to succeed. To witness first-hand someone willing to the very end to commit themselves to the purpose of other individuals became the foundation which The Really NEET Project was built upon.

The Golden Threads were always there, Paul just took my blinkers off so I could see them.

Tom oversees the programme ensuring the needs of young people are supported throughout their time on programme

Victoria ensures that all special educational needs are met, and she will support students in their annual reviews and PEP’s