A North West alternative school run by ex-professional footballers is helping its students avoid gang culture in the area and get back to mainstream education.
A&K Football Education, an alternative provision school in the Wirral co-founded by former Everton player Tony Grant, is working to reduce the influence of gang culture on its students.
The school targets kids aged 11-16 who traditionally struggle to complete five days in mainstream schools, and the initiative will focus on developing soft skills through football training and completing sports qualifications under the guidance of ex-professional footballers.
Based in Hoy Lake, the school was founded by educationalist Kevin Kirby and Tony Grant who played at Everton FC, Swindon Town, Tranmere Rovers, Manchester City, West Bromwich Albion, to name a few. Both founders share a mutual love of teaching and wanting to give back to their community.
The children are allowed to stay up to a maximum of threee days at the school. A prerequisite of children attending A and K football education is that they have to be attached to a mainstream school during the week so that they can complete qualifications such as English and Maths GCSE, which is something not taught at football school.
Kevin Kirby said: “When we originally opened up, we had a sports psychologist who devised a transition period for the kids, where years 7-9 we try and get them back into mainstream school. These are kids who won’t and because of covid can’t do five days at school, so they come to us to work on those premises and learn to self-regulate.”
But in the process of setting up their school and whilst teaching they noticed that the children would not cross borderlines to come to the school.
Picture of two people holding guns. Photo by Strvnge Films on Unsplash
Kevin Kirby, one of the directors of the school said: “The reason we set up the school was to support the whole of the Wirral and that’s when as a company we did start to come across these issues. We want to take these kids away from being seduced into gang culture.”
“That’s why we are particularly aiming at 11-16-year-olds to get in and cut the cord away from them, where they do have access to it. “It’s different estates, but all the same. They don’t have that interaction because there is a fear factor that they will not tolerate each other and I’m guessing that sort of idea is generational.”
The Wirral’s Woodchurch and Beechwood estates have seen an increase in serious gang violence in recent years.
According to the Wirral’s Community Safety 2025 report, Merseyside Police “have been pursuing gang members using all available criminal and regulatory powers and tactics to clear the area”. The force has been working in partnership with the Wirral “council to support the local community, by encouraging them to reduce tolerance to illicit goods and services.”
Due to this culture, the staff at A&K education have had to find different ways to make sure everyone gets the schooling and education they deserve.
Kevin added: “We are currently in Hoy Lake, but the thing is we couldn’t have a kid from Birkenhead North here and the Woodchurch estate at the same time. So Danny Ventre and I go to the Woodchurch estate and deliver schooling, and John Murphy stays here (Hoy Lake) with other staff and teaches the other kids.”
Danny Ventre and John Murphy have 15 years of experience playing for clubs. Ventre has played for Accrington Stanley, Sligo Rovers, Derry City, Telford United and Warrington Town. Whilst John Murphy has played for Chester City twice, Blackpool, Macclesfield Town and St Patricks FC.
However, it took the staff to find different ways to connect with the children to begin with.
“At the start of setting up the school it was a bit of a struggle and then we brought in the PlayStation believe it or not, and the kids were playing, and the next thing they realized that, their coaches John Murphy and Tony were in Fifa and their hats fell off,” Kevin added.
“So that broke down a lot of the things. And as much as we dislike the fact that some of these kids go home and play games and so forth, it did give them an insight and so on what these professional footballers had achieved.”
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
According to Kevin, once the children connected with the coaches, they adjusted to the curriculum and the pace of schooling.
Professional coaches teach children who are in years 6-9 an interactive programme of football training coupled with sports psychologist workshops, where they focus on tackling emotions and developing soft skills such as communication, teamwork and building confidence. The maximum they take in a class is a group of 12.
Children who are in years 10-11 get the opportunity to work towards qualifications that could lead to employment. On top of working towards key skills to help get them employed, they also, sit a standard set of 14 qualifications over a two-year period. In the future, there will be the potential for kids to sit their level one and level two sports coaching qualifications.
Speaking on the curriculum- John Murphy who coaches at the school and has had a 15 year playing career where he has played for Chester city, Blackpool, Macclesfield town and St Patricks FC said: “I think a lot of these kids have got trust issues. So when they come in we don’t bombard them. We go at their own pace and without them knowing it, we will try and up the pace without them realising.
“We don’t set timetables, you know it’s quite relaxed. A lot of the kids don’t sleep. Their body clock is messed up. So I think it’s important for us that when they’re ready, or they say “Come on, let’s go play football I’m fine, let’s go.”
Photo by Solving Healthcare on Unsplash
When asking John if his career in football has influenced the way he trains youth footballers he said: “I played for managers who were honest, they were hard but they were fair. They told you when you did well and when you didn’t do well, so I have sort of taken that on in my career and experience and I’ve tried to stay true to that. But they struggle with failure and I say its like with anything in life you succeed by failing.”
John Murphy has resided on the Wirral for 16 years and has experienced first-hand some of the telling truths that the kids have been sharing about the reality of the postcode wars taking place on the Wirral.
He said: “When we started, the kids were saying, we can’t go there, wouldn’t go there and I remember thinking it can’t be like this. It can’t be as bad as they are saying. But it is.
“I think Kevin Kirby has experienced that now because he has been in the war zone and he has seen what it’s like. So now we are fully aware that it is an issue, I’m more sympathetic towards it now. Again if we can make a change even if it’s small or big we have done something well.”
Outside of term time, their staff have also been working hard to support kids of the Wirral. More recently, A&K football education piloted an Easter holiday scheme that saw them go into the Woodchurch estate and train children in football, discuss mental health and emotional triggers, and provide healthy snacks and water.