Laughter and learning at BBC Children in Need-backed homework club

In a community hall in east Belfast, chatter and laughter fills the air as children play pool, draw cartoons and finish schoolwork with friends.

This is Ledley Hall Boys and Girls Club, which runs an after-school homework group with the help of BBC Children in Need.

"It's a safe space for them," says Caitlin McAlinden.

She is a special needs teacher but also gives each afternoon from Monday to Thursday to working as a part-time teacher at the homework club - and says it is of big benefit to the area.

The centre has running since 1942, providing services and activities for the local community.

For the past three years, with funding from BBC Children in Need, the centre has been able to help children up to the age of 15 with their homework, four days a week.

About 45 children are registered, with between 10 and 30 attending each day.

Children go to the club for a variety of reasons: their parents are still in work; they come for support with their homework; or just to spend time with their friends.

"They benefit from it being in an informal environment, which works for a lot of young people who maybe don't like being in school a whole lot," says senior youth worker Michelle Fullerton.

"It provides support for parents who either don't have the confidence to do homework or are at work.

"They come home from work and the homework's already done and it's been supervised by someone who is a teacher."

Ledley Hall received a three-year grant of about £34,000 in 2023, funding the salary of a part-time teacher and a classroom assistant to provide a homework club.

It is one of about 100 projects in Northern Ireland that BBC Children in Need supports with £5.5m of funding, reaching more than 25,000 children and young people.

This year's appeal on Friday aims to raise millions more pounds to help organisations like Ledley Hall carry on their work.

Fullerton says the club would not be possible without the help of BBC Children in Need.

"We charge 50p, and that's a nominal fee, but if parents were paying to have support for their kids after school to complete homework by someone who's a teacher it would cost a lot more," she says.

She says educational statistics in the area are "really poor", adding: "This is our attempt to try and bring up the educational standards of the young people."

The children who go to the homework club are pupils at nearby schools.

"They know what the rules are about how we work in here and I think just having that safe space for them to come," she says.

"They know that [we are here] if they need food, if they need support, if they need someone to talk to, if they just want somewhere to come and see their friends."

The children benefit both academically and socially from the club, says McAlinden, and the need for groups like it is "huge" in areas such as east Belfast.

"If we don't get our funding... then where do the kids go?" she asks.

"It's a place for them to make friends.

"They make friends from other schools, they get to maybe make friends with people in their school who they wouldn't usually talk to or anything like that."

Holly Hamilton, Connor Phillips and Pudsey Bear will host this year's BBC Children in Need 2026 in Northern Ireland, filmed at St Teresa's Youth Centre in Belfast.

You catch watch it on BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer at 15:50 GMT on Sunday 15 November.