They call themselves the Brickie Boys. The group is one of the winners of the BBC’s Young Reporter Competition.
On GCSE results day, the boys are on a mission to show other young people that you can be a success even if you do not get the grades.
Riley, Remus, Muhammad, all aged 17, and Heath, 16, met for the first time a year ago when they enrolled on a summer course in bricklaying.
Following the course, all of them enrolled in a Level One course in bricklaying.
None of the group did well in school and they did not take the course too seriously either at first, says Remus.
“At the start, everyone was messing around and then, I don’t know, out of nowhere it grew on us and we realised that this is life,” he says.
The course was run by ACE Training in Oxfordshire, a not-for-profit provider that takes young people from school – or those who or are not in education, employment or training – and teaches them construction skills.
It gave them their futures back, says Muhammed.
“When I heard about this college, they said it’s not all about GCSEs and everything and they’d help you step by step,” he told the BBC.
“I think this made a second chance, second chances all round.”
Natalie Games, one of the tutors helping students to resit exams and find employment, says: “A lot of our students don’t have faith in themselves, a lot of our students will come from school broken.
“A lot of the time, we have really challenging situations with the students in the beginning but, hopefully, most of our students go on to do themselves proud and do us proud as well.”
The boys have come a long way in the last year. They all say the course has helped them to mature, develop communication skills and grow in confidence.
“This time last year, I went to get my results and I knew I wasn’t going to pass any of them but I still went in, picked them up, and I didn’t pass English or maths,” says Riley.
“Natalie’s helped me a lot with my English and maths and I’m pretty sure I’ve passed and now I’ve got an apprenticeship, so it’s all going good for me.”
Heath says he “failed everything”, adding: “I didn’t feel like I had anywhere to go after that, I felt I was actually quite trapped.”
He has also gained an apprenticeship and resat Maths and English.
“I’ve gone from not getting any GCSEs, being not very well behaved, to passing maths and English and getting a trade out of it, so it’s impacted my life in a good way,” he says.
The boys say the idea of going into a trade was not promoted at school as a desirable thing to do and was considered only for those seen as unintelligent.
But Heath says he is “actually contributing something outside of just college, I’m building walls for houses – and that’s what people need”.
“Generally it is a good job, and it does pay well,” he says, adding: “You can have a lot of qualifications, you can have a lot of GCSEs and still be making the same amount of money or less than some tradesmen.
“I just believe that it’s wrong the way it’s perceived, it’s not correct really.”
Muhammed is now mentoring younger students enrolling on the college’s carpentry course, and one day wants to set up his own business.
That is a dream shared by Remus, who is also now starting an apprenticeship with a building firm.
He says: “I feel like schools put too much pressure on GCSEs.
“It is a big thing, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think it should be marked out as life and death.
“Your GCSEs don’t define who you are and you can still have a future without them.”
