Dundee United Community Trust holds an active and accepted Flexible Framework Agreement for Education & Social Services with Dundee City Council.

Tackling Schoolwork is a two-hour per week, eight-week curricular enrichment project that uses various aspects and departments within a football club to help pupils achieve certain outcomes and experiences that are central to the curriculum for excellence.

Blocks start with pupils self-evaluating their own literacy and numeracy skills, their ability to work with money, their understanding of a healthy lifestyle, their communication skills, and how well they think they work with others. Self-evaluation is completed at the midway point and again at the end of the block, allowing the pupils to track their own progress.

Tackling Schoolwork adopts a disguised learning approach where pupils take on various roles such as:

RETAIL MANAGER
to enhance numeracy through buying and selling stock.

JOURNALIST
to enhance literacy through writing a match report.

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
to build confidence in speaking and debating in front of their peers.

Pupils taking part in Tackling Schoolwork saw an overall 89% increase in literacy skills, a 92% increase in numeracy skills and an 88% increase in their confidence in communicating with others.