The ride of their lives

Motivating special needs children is a herculean task, but two urban schools have discovered a solution - horses. Caroline Haydon reports

Mucking out the stables is not something you'd expect work-shy teenagers to welcome. But on a bright spring mid-week afternoon, it's part of the job for nine youngsters aged 14 and 15 taking part in a unique project to get them out of the classroom and into a workplace where they can learn something useful, and gain a qualification to boot.

Everyone might be talking about the need to improve vocational training, but at the Lee Valley Riding Centre, just beyond the fringes of fashionable north London, words are put into practice. A pilot scheme started by the British Horse Society (BHS) with two local schools offers children the chance to ride, and to gain an NVQ Level 1 or BHS Stage 1 qualification, opening up the possibility of a job in the industry after they have left school.

Riding the horses is not compulsory, but all the girls have chosen to learn to ride, with some basic horse care and practical and classroom theory added on. Margaret Linington-Payne, the BHS examinations manager who conceived the course, says that this involves anatomy, physiology and how to pick up droppings.

If the children don't balk at that, they will be picking up their certificates in two years' time.

It's the kind of scheme that heads trying to keep special needs children on an upwards learning curve would give their eye teeth for. Sure enough, Jill Coughlan, the head of the Elizabeth Garret Anderson Language College in Islington, is a fan. Elizabeth Garret Anderson is a frontline inner-city school, with more than 50 per cent of children on free school meals, though it has been shooting up the league tables. Of the five girls who started work at the stables one afternoon a week, one has dropped out. But the other four have stuck it out - and are keen converts.

"We do have some other work-based learning schemes, but it would be wonderful to have more, and this has been fantastic," says Coughlan. "It's a great opportunity for Year 10 students to experience working with horses to get a vocational qualification. They've gained confidence and self-esteem because it's something they are enjoying - and it's making a real difference to their work in school."

The other school involved is the Samuel Rhodes School, also in Islington, which caters for children with moderate learning difficulties. Its head, Jackie Blount, has five pupils taking part, and she has noticed the same improvement in behaviour and social skills in them. But it is also important that her children can build up a relationship with someone, she says. The "someone" in this case is an animal. None the less, it is important that the children have "someone" who needs them, and with whom they can establish a bond.

"They just love it," she says. "They tend to suffer from not reading well, so anything that is a real motivator like this is fantastic. There's a lot of reading and writing involved as well as riding."

Their work reflects back into the classroom, she says. "They know that they're a potential risk to take out of school so they have to follow rules. It's made them grow up a bit and has really benefited them."

Irena Grint, the manager at Lee Valley, could spot changes in the children after only a month. "When they arrived they often didn't say much, or if they did they just said they didn't like what they were doing, or it was a bit smelly, or they weren't keen," she explains. "But now they enjoy it. Riding is a good discipline because you need masses of patience and determination. It's not always summer and the fields aren't always green; sometimes it's cold and muddy, and you have to have staying power. You need to be outgoing and sociable, too, with the others who are riding or learning."

And the mucking out? Not a problem now, apparently. "They love doing the stables and grooming the horses or taking them to the fields. It's very satisfying - making the horse look good, the bed look good, taking care of the animal."

According to Letisha Hunte, 14, from Elizabeth Garret Anderson, the stables are still sometimes smelly. But she doesn't mind. "I had been to a stables before," she says, "but this is different because they train you and you can learn. I'm going to do the NVQ Level 1 because I want to go to college and take up animal care." Her colleague Joanna Williamson, 15, likes Lee Valley so much she will continue the NVQ after she leaves school next year.

Even uniform, when worn on the job, isn't as bad as school uniform, it seems. The girls wear the standard, smart riding kit, with hair kept back in snoods and proper riding boots. "They know they won't be allowed to ride otherwise," says Grint.

The scheme is paid for by local authority funds and the Cripplegate Foundation, a trust that has been set up to improve the quality of life for Islington residents. There is already a second group of 11 students from Paignton Community and Sports College studying for BHS Level 1 in Kingsbridge, Devon, and Linington-Payne says she hopes further links with BHS-approved riding schools and other local authority schools will follow.

"It introduces people to working with horses and gives them a hobby that can be for life or even for a career," she says. Grint agrees, although she says she'd like to build on the work already done with those with special educational needs to see it offered more generally to all pupils. "This is just at the pilot stage; to succeed, it needs to be open to everyone."

education@independent.co.uk