Snooker star Shaun cues up new school

Sean Murphy with trustees from the R.E.A.L. Foundation Trust at the opening of their new alternative provision school on Woodhouse Road in Mansfield

The R.E.A.L. Foundation Trust’s alternative provision school on Woodhouse Road aims to provide ‘creative educational solutions’ for pupils between 14 and 19 who are ‘lost to learning’ and ‘hard to place’.

Shaun is the new patron of the charity and will be wearing their logo on his waistcoat throughout the forthcoming season as well as supporting them by giving motivational talks to the pupils.

The 2005 World Champion said: “My partner and I moved to Rushcliffe from Manchester in January. I had been a patron of the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and I was really keen to get involved in something similar here.

“I didn’t get on with a mainstream school and left at the age of 13. Looking back, if something like this existed in the 1990s I would have jumped right in. They take an individual’s passions and educate them around it.”

The trust was established in 2008 and the R.E.A.L. Independent School was opened in Blidworth in September 2013.

The new school offers a personalised curriculum focussing on literacy, numeracy, ICT, personal development and wellbeing, It will target all those who are at risk of becoming a long term NEET - Not in Education, Employment, or Training.