Dads + Kids + Learning
= Opportunity
BBC London
Community Group of 2025
BBC London
Community Group of 2025
BBC London
Community Group of 2025
BBC London
Community Group of 2025
Kirklees Council
Kirklees Council
Mayor of London
Dads Kids Club is a dad-led Community Interest Company that invites men to get more involved in their kids' education - improving children's educational engagement, men's mental health and life opportunities for both.
We connect, engage and support dads, stepdads, granddads, uncles and male carers to co-run screen-free, hands-on activity clubs at their children's primary schools. Sessions run one Saturday a month, co-designed with school leaders and delivered by volunteer male carers and school staff - focusing on KS1 to KS2 (aged 4 - 11), where male involvement is lowest and the impact on children's development is greatest.
Awards. Friends. Sponsors.
How we're doing it?
Children enjoy hands-on, beyond the curriculum, screen free, risk taking activities - learning new skills and solving challenges with their male parents. Depending on the time of year and the weather, activities can take place in or outdoors. Men have the opportunity to share skills, connect and bond, learning and encouraging each other, spark new connections, and creating meaningful memories and positive opportunities for each other. Every single session at every single club has a new activity to keep it exciting, here’s some of what goes on indoors and outdoors.
Making & Fixing. Bike fixing, maintenance and cycling skills, electronic circuit making, clay sculpting, mask making, rock painting, badge making, tin can alley, cornhole games, Nerf target alley, playground tidy and fix-ups, playground furniture making.
Moving & Competing. Top roping climbing, crab football, boxing and boxing pad training, martial arts, gymnastics, cricket, touch rugby, football coaching, assault course making, mini-sports days, Swingball, table football.
Creating & Performing. Stop-frame animation, storyboarding, comic creation, drawing, African drumming, musical jamming, speed chess, Sudoku, Rubik's cube challenges, Lego competitions, board games, Subbuteo, oversized chess, art competitions, treasure hunts, pet petting.
Outdoors & Adventures. Fire making and maintenance, cookery skills, food preparation and BBQing, ingredient trips, crazy golf course making, RC car racing, planting and growing projects, pitch maintenance. Cookery skills also run indoors depending on the session.
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84% of kids report liking school more, and 75% feel happier at school as a direct result of Dads Kids Club. Dads Kids Club survey 2025
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why?
Why we exist?
We are tackling children’s education disengagement and men's mental health crisis with an innovative intervention - inviting dads and male carers to get more involved in their kids' education to co-create more life opportunities.
Today in the UK at 3.30pm - 8,968 pupils will disengage from school and they rarely recover from the exit (ImpactEd Group 2025). Over 1.4million children were persistently absent from UK schools in 2025. Persistent absence remains 56% higher than pre-pandemic levels (Centre for Social Justice 2026).
Disengagement from education can have life changing outcomes. Evidence shows this can lead to school exclusion, teenage pregnancy, crime, lower employment opportunities and earning capacity, reduced pension provision and shorter life expectancies.
Sadly evidence shows: 77% of children in youth custody were persistently or severely absent in their most recent year at a state-funded school. 54% of these children were out of education for at least one academic year before moving into a secure setting. Only 20% of children in youth custody passed English and Maths GCSE (Children’s Commission 2025). 76% of young offenders in prison in England and Wales had an absent father (Prison Reform Trust 2008).
Today in the UK, men, especially dads and male carers have less social connection, as traditional male social infrastructure or networks collapse or close. As group activities such as workplaces evolve, clubs, or sports teams decline so does male social connection increasing isolated and loneliness. Sadly the outcome is 14 men die by suicide every day (Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys 2025).
And here's the thing - when dads show up for their kids, they show up for themselves too. The connections made at our sessions aren't just good for children. They're turning out to be exactly what many men didn't know they needed.
On a positive note the Paternal Involvement and its Effects on Children’s Education Report (UK Research & Innovation 2023) found that Dads' involvement impacted positively on children's school achievement regardless of the child's gender, ethnicity, age in the school year, or household income.
Today in the UK at 3.30pm - 8,968 pupils will disengage from school and they rarely recover from the exit. ImpactEd Group. 2025
Over 1.4 million children were persistently absent from UK schools in 2025 Centre for Social Justice 2026
Dads' (or male carers) involvement impacts positively on children's school achievement regardless of the child's gender, ethnicity, age in the school year, or household income. Paternal Involvement & its Effects on Children's Education (PIECE) project led by Dr. Helen Norman + UKRI 2023
97% of dads and male carers believe that if every primary school child in the UK had access to a Dads Kids Club it would create better outcomes for dads and kids. Dads Kids Club survey 2025
Testimonials
"By inviting dads and male carers of all backgrounds, identities and beliefs to enjoy regular curated activities, conversations and adventures with their children, I think that game changing things can happen."
Mr Martin. Deputy Head. Harlesden. North West London.
"School can become ever-more-cool, with great “Dad” memories made regularly in an
environment grown-ups would only normally frequent for parents’ evenings, assemblies
or an annual sports day."
Tom. Dad Volunteer. Meltham. West Yorkshire
"I felt really happy and also really excited. Adults and children were both playing
together, which is a part I really respect about Dads Kids Club. On my way home
from the awesomest Dads Kids Club, all I could think about was: Dads Kids Club!!!!!!! "
Quincy. Pupil . Brixton. South London.
The Ambition
Today, we’re working with approximately 289 male parents, 399 young people and 65 school staff across schools in London and Yorkshire. We want to scale nationwide and give every community the chance to have their own Dads Kids Club.
Our Theory of Change
Why we exist
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Children's dis-engagement in education is in crisis. A record 1.5 million pupils per year no longer fully engage in their education, reducing their life outcomes.
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Men’s mental health is in crisis in the UK. Male suicide is the leading cause of death in men under 50 in the UK.
Who needs this
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Kids who benefit from beyond curriculum screen-free, risk-taking learning and the opportunity to connection with more male role models.
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Dads & male carers of all masculinities navigating modern fatherhood without a manual.
How we do what we do
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Kids connect through fun-filled shared learning experiences. Dads connect and bond with fellow male carers by sharing skills, life experiences and volunteering their most precious asset - time.
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We co-create exciting safe learning spaces for dads, male carers and kids to support each to learn within and be better versions of themselves.
The Change we want
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Kids meet diverse male role models and are happier at school and like learning more.
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Dads find more purpose, build meaningful connections and are more engaged in their child’s education.
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Increased access to opportunities that can create better life outcomes and equalities for all within the community.
The outcomes
For Children (girls + boys)
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Meet a diverse range of role models.
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New skills from beyond the curriculum.
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More engaged and happier at schools.
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Better long-term life outcomes.
For Dads + male carers
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More engaged in their children’s learning and confident as a dad.
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Increased sense of purpose and reduce isolation - boosting mental health.
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More meaningful relationships and friendships.
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Opportunity to share skills.
Our Vision
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5.4 million kids in the 20,712 primary schools in the UK having the opportunity to go to a Dads Kids Club, helping up to 3.2 million dads and male carers be more engaged in their children's learning. Life outcomes improved for them all.
Dads Kids Club team
Scott Leonard - CEO (+ Founder)
Once a disadvantaged young person, raised by a single parent on free school meals in Huddersfield. The only member of his family with a degree. He has built DKC off the back of lived experience and 30 years of knowing how movements are made - to last.
Before DKC, Scott spent 30 years in brand strategy, purpose-for-profit and community leadership. Founded the UK's first social impact accredited creative agency, the Champion Agency, which worked with 86 purpose-led organisations, including the British Library, Mental Health First Aid England and Nesta. Mentored 450+ founders at the School for Social Entrepreneurs, co-delivered brand programmes for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin StartUp. Creative Partner at Ogilvy & Mather, Wieden+Kennedy, Mother, Karmarama and created the "Make Tea Not War" poster - which is in permanent collections at the V&A and Imperial War Museum.
Lived experience. Social entrepreneurship. Brand and Community building.
Sam Lehane - Head of Operations
A new dad, with that experience sitting at the heart of why he's here. Grew up in suburban Dublin in a sport-obsessed household to a self-employed dad and Dutch mother.
Spent 15+ years across operations, social enterprise and entrepreneurship. Qualified accountant who traded the Big 4 for purpose - moving from restructuring struggling businesses at KPMG to helping increase educational outcomes in schools in East Africa with Camara Education and then supporting thousands of early-stage founders at Virgin StartUp. Co-founded and later sold M.Y.O, a creative arts experience business that welcomed over 45,000 guests in its Central London studio.
Operations. Event management. Making ideas a reality.
+ Head of Research & Outcomes, Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists
Amit leads evidence generation and impact measurement at the RCSLT, with deep expertise in children's development and outcomes research. His role at DKC is central to building the rigorous evidence base that national funders and policymakers need to take DKC to scale. Proud father of two.
Research. Children’s development. Impact measurement.
Amit Kulkarni - Director
+ Product Management Consultant & Technologist, Linedata
Ed brings expertise in digital product strategy, systems thinking and scaling technology organisations. As DKC builds the infrastructure for national growth, his experience designing products that work at scale is directly relevant. Proud father of one.
Expert planner.Growth specialist. Digital products.
Ed Gouldstone - Director
Kenneth Baffoe - Director
+ Head of School, Jessop Primary (Ofsted Outstanding, 2024)
Kenneth leads Jessop Primary in Lambeth - part of the BJS Federation - where DKC was founded. His school holds an Outstanding Ofsted rating. As a frontline school leader navigating pupil wellbeing, community engagement and attainment daily, Kenneth brings sharp insight and understanding into what schools genuinely need from a programme like this. Proud father of three.
Educational excellence. School leadership.
Things we've learnt of late...
Here's a roundup of what we've encountered, discovered and enjoyed recently
