Red Balloon Cambridge

After the phenomenal success of our Centres in Cambridge over the last 25 years, we decided to bring both Centres together into one lovely house in Milton. Over the summer holidays we were busy installing and designing a new kitchen, science lab, art room, design and technology studio and community room as well as subject rooms. Students, staff, parents and volunteers worked hard creating the same warm and welcoming atmosphere that we are all so used to in our last Centres. It is wonderful to see how this has been recreated in our new home and we are looking forward to creating links with our new community. Students come to us having suffered bullying or other trauma, and often they have been out of mainstream education for a prolonged period of time. We aim to help them recover their self-confidence and self-esteem, to catch up with learning they have missed out on, and to prepare for the next stage in their journey, whether that is gaining qualifications and going to college, returning to school, or some other path.

We offer a very broad curriculum. We strive to make sure that it is stimulating and relevant to the young people we work with and meets their current and future needs.

We organise trips and visits throughout the year, ranging from short walks to local shops and museums to longer trips to London and an annual outward-bound adventure in the Lake District. We also work closely with our students’ families and liaise with the other agencies involved in their lives. Once a student is ready to return to school or to move on to further education, we support them through this process.

When students first arrive at Red Balloon Cambridge, they often meet great difficulty in building relationships with peers and adults and in seeing a positive future for themselves. Once it is agreed that this is the right place for them, and as long as they are ready to take that first step through our red front door, we will help them rediscover their self-belief and build a future for themselves. This is why many of our students tell us that their time at Red Balloon Cambridge is a truly transformational process.

Jessica Lechner
Coordinator

About the Centre

Red Balloon Cambridge now operates in a house in Milton. We provide a safe and supportive learning environment for up to forty young people from Cambridgeshire and surrounding counties. Our Centre is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 to 15:30 during term time. Students attend full-time or on a reduced time-table according to their needs and abilities.

Students can join RB-Cambridge from age 11 to 16, with those already with us able to stay to the maximum age of 18 to complete their GCSEs. Though we have sixth-form aged students with us, we are not able to offer A-levels. The highest level of education we offer is Key Stage 4 (GCSEs and equivalent).

About Red Balloon

At Red Balloon we judge success and progress for our students against their individual goals. We want to see our students grow as individuals and develop the self awareness, social skills and confidence to make their way in the world.

All Red Balloon Centres focus on the three key elements of:

• well-being
• education
• social re-engagement

to ensure our students get the support they need to thrive. Read more about our values, ethos and practice.

Negotiated curriculum

At Red Balloon Cambridge, we use a negotiated curriculum. This means that students and staff work together to devise a bespoke programme for each student. It is often the case that, when students join us, they are not ready to work towards qualifications and may find significant difficulty in accessing the curriculum.

Our staff are adept at using topics that our students are passionate about, creatively linking them to appropriate curricular subjects to rekindle their interest in learning. Students may not be ready to work in groups with others, and we, therefore, provide opportunity for 1:1 support as well as small group sessions.

A significant part of our programme is dedicated to well-being support and therapy and students are offered a range of therapeutic support. Creative subjects, such as art, music and drama are often used as therapeutic opportunities in addition to being important areas for learning.

At the heart of our community is our beautiful community room with its new kitchen. Here, staff and students come together to eat, celebrate birthdays and other festive occasions, play games or just sit and chat. We encourage our students to be part of the community, therefore we have created quieter spaces within the community room where students can feel safe and secure and still be part of the group.

See more on What students can expect or Our Values, Ethos and Practice

Find out more about Red Balloon Cambridge

Fundraising Opportunities

New Milton Premises Science Lab

At Red Balloon we know that studying science in secondary school is so much more than a vehicle to gain qualifications for future careers (although this of course is incredibly important too!). We understand that it’s also about sparking curiosity about how the world works, about fueling inquiring minds that challenge what they read and hear, encouraging questions and researching answers and so much more. And as we move from our current buildings in central Cambridge to our new home at Milton we are fitting a lab that will allow us to inspire young people to enjoy science and engage with the subject with a sense of wonder and excitement.

Red Balloon students have left mainstream education because of their mental health issues and more often than not have missed many months, or years, of education. Science is one way we can help to rekindle that joy of learning, to rebuild self esteem and help our vulnerable young people move forward with their lives.

We are reaching out to the amazing science community in Cambridge to help us in our quest. Cambridge is the number one scientific and technology innovation cluster in the world (according to the 2023 Global Innovation Index) and we would like to partner with some of the 5000 or so knowledge-intensive firms out there to help fund our new lab. According to Cambridge University over 61,000 people are employed in these companies which have combined annual revenue of over £15.5 billion. If just 25 companies donated £1000 each our lab would be fully funded! But of course we’d be happy for any financial support however small, or large!

Email sam.nightingale@cambridge.rblc.org.uk to find out more about how you can help.

Enrolling with Red Balloon Cambridge

There is usually a waiting list; times vary according to number of referrals made. To enquire about a place and add your child’s name to our waiting list, please contact us on 01223 357714 option 2 or email admissions@cambridge.rblc.org.uk. For further information see Admissions.

Before contacting us, you should check whether our provision is suitable for your child. If RB-Cambridge is not suitable for you or your child, do take a look at our online provision Red Balloon of the Air.

For exams queries, please contact examsofficer@cambridge.rblc.org.uk

Safeguarding at Red Balloon Cambridge

We are committed to ensuring that all students are safe – we have robust safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures to protect our students.

FAQs