Lewis Hamilton’s Mission 44 Charity Partners With Sky To Tackle School Exclusions Amongst Black Pupils

Sir Lewis Hamilton’s charity, Mission 44 has partnered with Sky to tackle permanent school exclusion rates amongst Black pupils. 

This move comes after statistics highlighted that pupils of non-white ethnicity are often excluded from education at 2.5 times the rate of their white peers.

Sky will commence a two-year partnership with Mission 44 in order to tackle systemic racism and try to make a difference amongst communities affected by racism, especially for children whose education has been impacted by high rate of exclusion from education.

Mission 44 will also receive over £1m of funding from Sky across the two-year period. with initiatives aimed at tackling the following issues;

• Preventing exclusions grants – Grant funding for Multi-Academy Trusts to enable investment in interventions to reduce school exclusion rates.
• Scaling impact grants – Provide funding to support high potential or high impact interventions designed to prevent exclusions and instead improve prospects of excluded students.
• Included Research Project – Research project designed to amplify voices of excluded students to discover required support to achieve positive outcomes and future progress.
• Early career insight programme – Early career insight programme led by Sky to provide information, advice and guidance on opportunities across media and broadband & telecommunication industry for students at risk of exclusion or already excluded from mainstream education.

Speaking about his own experiences of exclusion, Hamilton said: “Understanding and addressing issues that lead to young people being excluded from school is really important to me.

“Having experienced unfair exclusion during my time at school, I understand how upsetting and stressful it can be.”

Hamilton also praised Sky for their support and is hopeful that this partnership is one which “can deliver meaningful changes by arming schools with the proper strategies to support and empower young Black students, instead of giving up on them.”

Sky Group CEO, Dana Strong added that Sky welcome this chance to help tackle education challenges facing students of minor ethnicities as she added: “We hope our partnership will support Mission 44’s work to improve the experience of Black pupils and support them to succeed at school and beyond.”

Mission 44 CEO, Jason Arthur meanwhile described school exclusions as “an issue of social justice” which needs tackling due to various reasons behind exclusions, as he said: “Excluded students often must contend with a range of complex social and economic challenges, such as poverty, racism and mental ill-health, that cause them to face both disadvantage and discrimination in our education system.”

This announcement comes as speculation continue to abound concerning Hamilton’s future in F1 following a controversial season finale in Abu Dhabi last month, which saw the Brit denied a record eighth title on the final lap through stewarding incompetence.