Help Frankie be all she can be
Donation protected
Please help our sister, Frankie, get the education she needs.
Help her learn to live happily, safely and independently.
We are trying to raise money by September to send Frankie to a specialist residential college.
This is our gorgeous older sister, Frankie (in the middle).
Frankie has Down’s syndrome, a significant speech and language disorder, some hearing loss and multiple occupational therapy needs. She’s 23 this year.
Frankie wants to develop the work, life, social and emotional skills every adult needs to make their own way in the world. But, despite making good progress at school, mainstream further education isn’t working for her. She remains almost completely reliant on adult care, emotionally fragile and extremely vulnerable. To move forward, Frankie needs to attend a specialist residential college, where learning is built into everyday life. Our parents have been fighting for 3 years to get her into the outstanding Foxes Academy. She has been offered a place but funding is a huge problem.
Frankie’s dream is to go to Foxes Academy …
Foxes is a residential training hotel and catering college rated Outstanding by Ofsted. They run a three-year programme leading to an NVQ in hospitality. They have a 100% pass rate. And they support their students into employment and supported living placements, achieving astonishing outcomes. Frankie first visited Foxes in December 2014 and has been talking about it ever since! It’s a unique set-up and just a joyful and inspiring place to be. It would be perfect for Frankie.
Frankie is a very sensitive young woman. She has seen her younger siblings go away to university and feels left behind. She desperately wants to be more independent, to work and to have more control over her life. She’d love to be a waitress – surely a role made for Frankie as someone who loves to chat and laugh with everyone she meets!
Frankie was well supported at school and made progress. Since leaving school six years ago, she has gone to two mainstream further education colleges, attending units for young people with learning difficulties. Sadly, she has made very little progress and has actually gone backwards in terms of some basic skills. It breaks our hearts to see Frankie struggle with things she could previously do, like telling the time and handling money. She is capable of so much more. Worse still, we have seen her confidence as a learner nosedive and her overall anxiety about the future escalate. Her self-esteem is low. Our fear is that Frankie will be left behind; a lost ‘child’ in an adult world - dependent, vulnerable and fragile.
To prevent this disturbing picture becoming Frankie’s reality, she needs the right support in the right environment. She really needs Foxes Academy.
Frankie has an offer of a place on a three-year course at Foxes starting in September this year. She had an offer last year too. But the local authority won’t fund her. This is not entirely surprising as a place at Foxes costs around £46,000 a year, but there are laws about this and our parents are pursuing every legal option open to them; they will not give up on Frankie’s dream.
They have just started another tribunal case to get funding and Frankie has a good chance. The problem is that this tribunal case probably won’t be decided before September and if Frankie doesn’t start at Foxes this September, it will then be impossible for her to get funding for the full three-year programme because the cut-off age for funding is 25.
This is where we need your help.
If we can raise funds to pay for Frankie to start at Foxes in September and to continue there for, maybe, two terms until the legal process has played out, we will be able to keep Frankie’s dream alive and build a basis from which to secure a future for her. After that, we, as a family, are in the hands of the tribunal. If we win, Frankie will be funded to stay at Foxes. If not, Frankie won’t be able to continue there. While this would be a devastating blow for us all, we would be comforted by the knowledge that, thanks to you, Frankie will have had the benefit, albeit briefly, of an unforgettable experience.
We would be so grateful if you could help us in whatever way you can.
And so would Frankie.
Please help us if you can. And please share this with your family, friends, followers, contacts and anyone else you can think of; and ask them to do the same.
Any questions? Just ask and we'll do our very best to answer them.
Thank you so much.
Abbie and Brad
Help her learn to live happily, safely and independently.
We are trying to raise money by September to send Frankie to a specialist residential college.
This is our gorgeous older sister, Frankie (in the middle).
Frankie has Down’s syndrome, a significant speech and language disorder, some hearing loss and multiple occupational therapy needs. She’s 23 this year.
Frankie wants to develop the work, life, social and emotional skills every adult needs to make their own way in the world. But, despite making good progress at school, mainstream further education isn’t working for her. She remains almost completely reliant on adult care, emotionally fragile and extremely vulnerable. To move forward, Frankie needs to attend a specialist residential college, where learning is built into everyday life. Our parents have been fighting for 3 years to get her into the outstanding Foxes Academy. She has been offered a place but funding is a huge problem.
Frankie’s dream is to go to Foxes Academy …
Foxes is a residential training hotel and catering college rated Outstanding by Ofsted. They run a three-year programme leading to an NVQ in hospitality. They have a 100% pass rate. And they support their students into employment and supported living placements, achieving astonishing outcomes. Frankie first visited Foxes in December 2014 and has been talking about it ever since! It’s a unique set-up and just a joyful and inspiring place to be. It would be perfect for Frankie.
Frankie is a very sensitive young woman. She has seen her younger siblings go away to university and feels left behind. She desperately wants to be more independent, to work and to have more control over her life. She’d love to be a waitress – surely a role made for Frankie as someone who loves to chat and laugh with everyone she meets!
Frankie was well supported at school and made progress. Since leaving school six years ago, she has gone to two mainstream further education colleges, attending units for young people with learning difficulties. Sadly, she has made very little progress and has actually gone backwards in terms of some basic skills. It breaks our hearts to see Frankie struggle with things she could previously do, like telling the time and handling money. She is capable of so much more. Worse still, we have seen her confidence as a learner nosedive and her overall anxiety about the future escalate. Her self-esteem is low. Our fear is that Frankie will be left behind; a lost ‘child’ in an adult world - dependent, vulnerable and fragile.
To prevent this disturbing picture becoming Frankie’s reality, she needs the right support in the right environment. She really needs Foxes Academy.
Frankie has an offer of a place on a three-year course at Foxes starting in September this year. She had an offer last year too. But the local authority won’t fund her. This is not entirely surprising as a place at Foxes costs around £46,000 a year, but there are laws about this and our parents are pursuing every legal option open to them; they will not give up on Frankie’s dream.
They have just started another tribunal case to get funding and Frankie has a good chance. The problem is that this tribunal case probably won’t be decided before September and if Frankie doesn’t start at Foxes this September, it will then be impossible for her to get funding for the full three-year programme because the cut-off age for funding is 25.
This is where we need your help.
If we can raise funds to pay for Frankie to start at Foxes in September and to continue there for, maybe, two terms until the legal process has played out, we will be able to keep Frankie’s dream alive and build a basis from which to secure a future for her. After that, we, as a family, are in the hands of the tribunal. If we win, Frankie will be funded to stay at Foxes. If not, Frankie won’t be able to continue there. While this would be a devastating blow for us all, we would be comforted by the knowledge that, thanks to you, Frankie will have had the benefit, albeit briefly, of an unforgettable experience.
We would be so grateful if you could help us in whatever way you can.
And so would Frankie.
Please help us if you can. And please share this with your family, friends, followers, contacts and anyone else you can think of; and ask them to do the same.
Any questions? Just ask and we'll do our very best to answer them.
Thank you so much.
Abbie and Brad
Organizer and beneficiary
Abbie Saffron
Organizer
England
Paul Saffron
Beneficiary
