Boyhood
Helping every boy grow up with confidence, in his own way
Adolescence is where a boy starts working out who he can become. This journey is shaped by who listens to him, who he gets to meet, and how much room he's given to find his own answer to "what it means to be a man." The William Ellis Trust exists to make sure every boy at William Ellis gets that room, whatever his background. Built on the school's own philosophy of “Today's Boys, Tomorrow's Leaders,” our work backs pupils to explore who they want to become, and gives them real chances to act on it, not just talk about it.
Our community consists of boys from a wide range of backgrounds, as well as girls as part of the LaSWAP consortium. 71% of our pupil community come from a Global Majority background, with 63% coming from under-resourced backgrounds. A secondary aim is to help our wider community understand boys better, and we place a great emphasis on providing our young people with a platform to speak out about their own experiences of growing up in the modern world and help us all understand their lives better.
From The Boys: a podcast made by boys, not about them
This year, sixteen Year 10 pupils spent their work experience at Middlesex University's MDX Studios learning to interview, record and edit, then used those skills to make five podcast episodes on what boys actually talk about: pressure to perform at school, behaviour, online influence, and what masculinity means to them now.
It's already travelled further than most school projects do. BBC London News, the Ham & High and the Barnet Post have all covered it, and the team behind it has been invited to present the model at the National Boys' Impact Conference in September, so other schools can learn from it too.
For the pupils involved, the impact is closer to home. Jacob, 15, said the project gave him real media skills “in a supportive environment”; Bobby, 15, came away knowing “how to use technology in the recording studios”; Felix, 15, used his episode to unpack the pressure social media puts on young men. As Dr Alex Blower, author of Lost Boys, put it: “Boys are often talked about but not with. Podcasts offer a fantastic opportunity to put that right.” The series launches at the school on 22 October 2026.
Backing pupils to help change their own worlds
We've funded a leadership role dedicated to student voice and activism giving pupils a real say in decisions that affect them at school, and a stronger platform to speak on the issues their community cares about. Our Students Rights Council have worked with Neighbourly Labs on a school loneliness project, playing a key role in how to spend the funding received as part of the project to reduce loneliness within the school. Ideas have included an expansion of extra-curricular clubs, creating new spaces for connection and suggestions for how to improve the school detention programme.
What we're working towards
• Boys get a genuine say, not a token one, in the ideas and activities built for them, because pupils understand their own experience of growing up better than we do. We will be launching a Pupil Advisory Board from September 2026 to engage with them directly.
• Every boy sees himself reflected: no single template for “being a boy” within the school — confidence and identity grow when different ways of being a young man are all treated as valid.
• Boys build relationships with men from a range of backgrounds and paths, so “success” and “manhood” stop being narrow, distant ideas and become things a pupil can actually picture for himself.
• William Ellis's experience feeds a bigger conversation: what we learn from doing this work well at William Ellis, we put into the wider conversation on boys' education because a model that works here may help boys elsewhere too.
Get involved
We're looking for people and organisations in Camden with an idea, a skill or a network that could open up what's possible for our pupils. If you think you could help a boy at William Ellis reach somewhere he couldn't get to on his own, get in touch with our Director at wdurham@williamellis.camden.sch.uk