FORMER miner Alex Channon left school at 15 with just one qualification, a certificate for swimming 25 yards. But this has not stopped him inspiring others to get more out of their education.

The grandfather-of-four has worked as a mentor in Salford, Greater Manchester, for three years, helping improve the home and school lives of pupils at St Thomas of Canterbury RC primary school.

“It’s the best job I’ve ever had,” said Mr Channon, 53, who worked as a pit mechanic in Agecroft Colliery for 25 years.

Mr Channon was one of 12 “champions” singled out for special praise this week from pupils, mentors and teachers involved in the Government’s Excellence in Cities (EiC) programme.

Another champion, Umer Safdar, 15, a pupil at Falinge Park high school in Rochdale, Lancashire, said he had seen his life turn around through contact with his mentor.

“I used to get into a lot of trouble with the head and I’ve been suspended two or three times,” said Umer, who is now taking 10 GCSEs and plans to go to university.

Koss Mohammed is an outreach worker with Somali families linked to four schools in west London. She says her presence, coupled with home visits, improves behaviour among Somali girls and allows teachers to concentrate on lessons.

“It gives you a very big job satisfaction when somebody you have been working with achieves something,” she said.

EiC is the Government’s flagship programme to boost achievement in the inner cities using learning mentors, new technology, programmes for gifted and talented pupils, learning support units, and more specialist and beacon schools.

School standards minister David Miliband said funding for EiC would continue at more than pound;300 million a year for two years, rising to pound;700m by 2005-06. A total of pound;500m has been invested since 1999 in 58 authority areas.

The new Excellence Clusters - targeted at smaller “pockets” of deprivation - will start in September 2003 in Ashford, Bexley, Boston, Chesterfield, Grantham, Gravesend, Harlow, Havering, Maidstone, Northampton, Scunthorpe, Spalding and Swindon.

Alasdair Macdonald, head of Morpeth school in Tower Hamlets, east London, said it gets an extra pound;210,000 a year in EiC funding. He said it had been vital for the Government to acknowledge that extra funds were needed to help pupils in city schools to improve.

John Bangs, head of education for the National Union of Teachers, praised EiC’s achievements but added: “You have to target funding to educational disadvantage, but you have to be extra careful you are including everyone you need to.”

EXCELLENCE in cities: so Far

* Between 1999 and 2001 the proportion of children achieving level 5 or above at key stage 3 in English rose by about 2.5 percentage points in Excellence in Cities’ areas compared to 0.5 points elsewhere.

* In maths, over the same period, results improved by 2.5 percentage points in EiC areas, compared to just over 1 point elsewhere.

lIn science subjects, results improved by seven points compared to a little over six points elsewhere.

* Where the EiC scheme had been in place fromSeptember 1999, theproportion of pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades at GCSE rose by 2.9 percentage points from 1999 to 2001, compared with 2.1 points elsewhere.

* Where EiC had been in place from September 2000, theproportion of pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades at GCSE rose by 1.3 percentage points between 2000 and 2001, compared with 0.7 points elsewhere.