Nightingales is passionate about young people staying in education. It is passionate about young people building their own future. 

For many years we have run various activities and projects to help those who are struggling at school. But for the three years, we have been running a project which supports boys in their learning during the first 4 years at school. 

These young boys are all at a local school. They range in age from 6-12. Some of them have parents who struggle with helping them, either because of time or because they are unable to. 

These lunchtimes meetings are amazing. They are wild, but great. The boys come straight from school, where they have been since 8.00am and have a hot meal before starting to do their homework. For the most part, it is trying to get the boys to concentrate on their homework and not on each other’s homework. The older ones when struggling with their Romanian language homework, often comment on how easy it is for those in younger classes. 

Since the summer it has been amazing to see their little group grow, and more parents are now asking for their children to be involved in this project. We have had to limit it, due to noise and making sure that we are not losing quality just to accept a larger number of people to the project. 

For the boys there are two highlights, one at the beginning and one at the end of the session. The first thing they do is have a hot meal made by the lovely old lady we have living at Nightingales, Svitlana. She loves these boys even if they are loud, and her favourites are those with the biggest appetites. At the end of the session, those who have finished their homework, or hit their targets, are allowed to play on the laptop or the Nintendo Switch which was donated to the charity. 

Seeing these boys over the last couple of years growing and developing educationally has brought great joy to all. It is a project which grows and develops, with many challenges each session. 

Thank you all for making this possible.