Sky donates £1m to Sir Lewis Hamilton's charity to help tackle high rates of school exclusions among Black students

The partnership forms part of Sky’s £30m commitment towards tackling systemic racism and will see Mission 44 receive more than £1m during the two-year period.

A spokesman said: "Lewis Hamilton is personally driven to help address disproportionate exclusion rates as a result of his own experiences with behaviour management practises at school.

"His foundation, Mission 44, aims to support, champion and empower young people from underserved groups in the UK to succeed by narrowing opportunity gaps with a focus on education and employment. Research from Mission 44 shows that Black Caribbean students are 2.5 times more likely to be permanently excluded compared with their White counterparts."

Sky’s partnership with Mission 44 includes initiatives aimed at tackling the issue, including grant funding for Multi-Academy Trusts to invest in interventions that reduce school exclusion rates.

It will also support the ‘Included’ research project, which amplifies the voices of a group of excluded students to discover what support they need to achieve positive outcomes.

An early-career insight programme will be led by Sky to provide information, advice, and guidance on opportunities in the broadband and telecommunications industry for students at risk of exclusion and students already excluded from mainstream education.

Founder of Mission 44, Sir Lewis Hamilton, said: “Understanding and addressing issues that lead to young people being excluded from school is really important to me. Having experienced unfair exclusions during my time at school, I understand how upsetting and stressful it can be.

"When we launched Mission 44 last year, implementing initiatives such as these was a personal priority and I am grateful to have the support of Sky to help Mission 44 take action. Through this partnership, I hope we can deliver meaningful change by arming schools with the proper strategies to support and empower young Black students, instead of giving up on them.”

Announcing the partnership, Sky’s Group CEO, Dana Strong, said: “We are passionate about tackling racial injustice and welcome the opportunity to partner with Sir Lewis Hamilton and Mission 44 to champion and empower young people.

"We hope our partnership will support Mission 44’s work to improve the experience of Black pupils and support them to succeed at school and beyond.”

In January 2021, Sky set targets to increase ethnic diversity and representation across its UK workforce.

By 2025, Sky is aiming for 20% of its employees in the UK & Ireland to be from Black, Asian, or ethnically diverse backgrounds, with at least a quarter of these being Black. This target also applies to Sky’s leadership team.