About Us
Building character, self-worth and confidence in young people.
For happier, healthier living.
Offering unrivalled expertise and lived experience through our growing family of inspirational role models and education professionals, Commando Joe’s is a powerful force for positive change.
We work with schools to empower young people and give them the life skills they need to thrive.
Focusing on empathy, resilience, kindness and fortitude, we’re proud to play our part in helping young people become the best version of themselves.
For now, and for good.
OUR MANIFESTO
Leaders, teachers and change-makers; we put young people on a path to potential. We build characters and communities for the greater good. It starts with an empowering state of mind. We teach young people to form strength through adversity. To see things with perspective and understanding. To succeed. To fail. And to know that both outcomes are ok. To find inner pride and the will to progress.
We teach young people to be prepared. We make them feel safe. And by doing so, we give them the confidence to know they can take risks. To know they can ask questions and make mistakes. Glorious mistakes that stack up to glorious achievements with every lesson learned.
And, in turn, we learn from them.
We learn that true education goes beyond filling gaps in the mind. It must also light fires in the soul. So when the classroom child feels confined by walls, we take away the walls. Every young person has the potential to move mountains. But first they must move themselves.
So we work hard to trust their play. To find their way in every day so that the steps they take are to a destination of their own choosing. Not one set by circumstance. We build character, self-worth and confidence in young people.
For happier, healthier living.
We are Commando Joe’s.
A Part of The Edwin Group
Commando Joe’s are proud to be part of the Edwin Group. An education alliance here to do good. Connecting schools, students and teachers through a refreshing approach to education services. Including teaching, training, support, building character and safeguarding. Find out more about the Edwin Group here.
Our Partners Morpeth First School
We are delighted to have partnered with Morpeth First school in developing brand new Early Years resources to help support the development of character from the beginning of a child’s education. The Early Years Exploration programme supports the significance of early childhood development. The interactions and experiences in these early years shape crucial brain connections. By integrating character education into the early years curriculum, the foundations of positive habits and values will guide children into adulthood.
As a school, we have always used core books as a stimulus to deliver our character curriculum, within the context of early years. Children are able to easily identify with characters from familiar books, and when you tie stories and character traits together, it really helps bring the moral of the story to life. Submersing children in character in this way, allows and encourages them to reflect on behaviours, linking them to the language of values and virtues, within appropriate contexts even at such a young age. We feel that using well-known and loved stories has the greatest impact on our children, as using texts with strong cross-curricular links is highly effective in embedding character across everything you do within your setting. Exposing children to a character-rich environment, where they can explore and demonstrate a set of values in a safe and inspiring space, enables them to flourish and thrive in their own personal development.
Nadine Fielding, Head teacher and Sadie Rodway, Character Champion.
Our Track Record
- 2012 - 2016
- 2013 - 2016
- 2016 - 2019
- 2017 - 2020
- 2018 - 2019
- 2018 - 2020
- 2019 - 2020
- 2020
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2012 – 2016
£3.2 million of Department for Education (DfE) grant funding – delivered Military Ethos Alternative Provision Programme (MEAP) in 350 schools nationwide involving over 175,000 pupils aged 5-16yrs, 1,750 professionals, and encouraged 10,500 parents to take a proactive role with their child’s education.
Independently evaluated by Swansea University (Arch Exercise Health Dis 5 (1-2): 377-385, 2015) , Nottingham University research: What’s the alternative Effective support for young people disengaging from the mainstream
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2013 – 2016
Mahdlo Onside Youth Zone building capacity and skills through delivering challenging youth activities. Includes liaising with Youth Offending Teams to identify young offenders in need of 1:1 support to get them back on track whilst participating in activities alongside their peer groups
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2016 – 2019
300 schools nationwide self-fund Instructor-led MEAP programme – 1:1 and group provision for students at risk of exclusion ages 5-16yrs.
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2017 – 2020
Over 30,000 school leaders and staff across 650 schools trained to deliver and implement the RESPECT and Operation Blackout programmes which supports students to develop life skills nationwide.
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2018 – 2019
‘Creating a compelling culture for Pupil Learning Behaviour’ programme Norfolk OA
RESPECT Programme roll out across 40 Doncaster OA Primary schools 2,250 school staff trained to deliver of the RESPECT Programmes.
23 schools across Oldham, Blackpool, Ipswich and Derby commissioned training to deliver RESPECT and Operation Blackout Programmes through Essential Life Skills delegated funding.
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2018 – 2020
Delivery Partner for Building a Stronger Britain Together Programme – Get Oldham Talking. Tailored extra-curricular activities targeting 2,500 students aged 10-16yrs building resilience to stand up to extremism in all its forms.
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2019 – 2020
Education Endowment Fund ‘Effectiveness of Outdoor Adventure Training’ – Outward Bound and Commando Joe’s, 2376 students aged 13-14yrs. Instructor-led Adventure learning over a continuous 5-day period.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/adventure-learning/
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2020
Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) Theory of Change project
Funded research undertaken by Amy Skipp from ASK Research – Impact of Commando Joe’s
