The commitment to support NELI follows the successful completion of a trial across 193 schools in England. The trial, funded by the EEF and ICG, found that training teaching assistants to lead short structured sessions with pupils aged four to five resulted in three months’ additional progress with language skills for the pupils that took part compared with a group of similar children who did not. The evaluation also found that the programme was an effective way of boosting language skills for children with English as an additional language.
ICG’s three-year charitable partnership with the EEF, announced in December 2019, involves the contribution of up to £1.5m over three years to two charities supported by the EEF, which seeks to break the link between family income and educational achievement, supporting teachers and senior leaders to raise the attainment of three to 18-year old’s and close the disadvantage gap.
ICG’s support for NELI follows the announcement of its commitment to the Tutor Trust in December 2019. The Tutor Trust aims to transform one-to-one tuition and help tackle educational inequality in a unique way – recruiting and training bright university students as tutors in the core subjects of maths, English and science and placing them in state schools.
ICG’s partnership with the Educational Endowment Foundation runs alongside its long-standing commitment to ThinkForward, a UK charity working to reduce the risk of young people with the highest risk of unemployment, enabling them to transition into sustained work. ICG supports ThinkForward financially but also through its mentoring programme, whereby a team of volunteers from ICG’s London office give their time each month to work with disengaged young people – encouraging them to develop their skills and become more well-rounded individuals.
In addition to mentoring, ICG finances a specialist coach in the London East Alternative Provision unit and helps ThinkForward develop its operations. In September 2018 the programme was awarded the inaugural Sir Martyn Lewis Award, part of the Lord Mayor of London Dragon Awards, recognising the significant impact the partnership between ICG and ThinkForward makes on the lives of young people in East London.
ICG has also recently announced a donation of £250,000 to two charities seeking to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 virus. ICG also provides an annual allowance for each of its offices to donate to local charities, as well as supporting the fundraising efforts of individual employees and providing two volunteering days a year for each employee.
Vijay Bharadia, Chief Finance and Operating Officer at ICG, said:
We are delighted that NELI’s study has proved so successful. Boosting language skills among young children can make a significant impact on their long-term success and the programme sits perfectly alongside our support of the Tutor Trust and ThinkForward in helping young people overcome the challenges they may face in order for them to achieve their true potential.
Subscribe to our newsletters
Sign up for Regulatory News updates: click here
