IF you had seen 14-yearold Jordan Jones from Tonge Fold in action at school six months ago, alarm bells would have rung. He had the tag “troubled teenager”

stamped all over him. A walking, talking — and highly explosive — cocktail of anger and insecurity, he was soon to be excluded from Sharples School.

By his own admission, he was a notorious pupil. No doubt his name inspired exasperation in the staff room and awe in the school canteen in equal measures.

In January this year, things came to a head. “I got kicked out,” Jordan admitted.

The way Jordan tells it, the final stand-off between him and the school ended in him head-butting a teacher while he found himself “pinned up against a wall”.

The drama unfolded after he’d refused to obey orders to leave the classroom following an incident involving scissors, Jordan said.

It wasn’t his first or his worst offence at school, he said — there had been an instance of damaging a teacher’s property, for example — but it was the one that ended his days at Sharples School prematurely.

“I just had a massive strop, started kicking things,” he explained. “I couldn’t control my anger, and it was getting worse and worse. Kids used to come up to me, and say: ‘What are you going to do in the lesson?’ I saw it as a challenge. I had a bit of a reputation and I felt good about it. Some little kid said to me he wanted to be like me.”

Fast forward six months, to a sunny Sunday evening.

Jordan enters Bolton Town Hall, wearing a mortar board and gown.

It’s his “graduation ceremony” from a project called “ Reclaim” aimed at getting troubled teens on the right path.

To his own amazement, Jordan is awarded the title of “ambassador” for the project which saw 19 Bolton boys aged 13 and 14 being mentored since November 2009. He’d successfully completed a four-day conference, monthly events including army training at Holcombe Moor and being interviewed by local employers, plus fortnightly meetings with his mentor, 23-year-old Dean Bailey from Oldham, an administrator for a solicitors’ firm.

Along with four fellow graduates, he is a shining example of what youngsters like this can achieve (Aaron Stulock won an award for perseverance, Kyle Jones for initiative, Adam Owen for dedication and Leighton Barlow for leadership).

Towering above his peers at 6ft 2in, slim-built, with spiky ginger hair and pale skin, Jordan strangely looks both older and younger than his age.

His personal life seems an equally mixed affair.

Jordan — one of seven siblings — reveals he doesn’t smoke or drink, plays football for a team in Horwich, likes impersonating Michael Jackson, going to a YMCA youth club and McDonald’s.

His father is completing a computer course in the hope of finding a job, Jordan explains. Jordan lives with him and his 13-year-old sister.

He is quietly spoken, and you might forgive him for lamenting the “stupid”

graduation outfit — a bit of bravado, lest his peers think he’s “soft”.

Yet he readily admits graduating was his “proudest moment”.

“Before I came on the project I was an idiot always messing about in school and I didn’t care about my education, didn’t care what happened to my life, didn’t have any confidence and hated to talk in front of large groups,” he said.

“I was racist and all I cared about was myself and my reputation and that got me nowhere. Now I’ve got the confidence to do things I never thought I could do before. I’m trying everything I can to catch up on work, I don’t care about my reputation.

“If a teacher tells me off I hold my hands up. So I would like to thank the Reclaim team for changing my life around.”

In September, Jordan will be joining Bolton St Catherine’s Academy in Year 10 from Compass Centre North, a Pupil Referral Unit and he is desperate to do well in school to secure his future.

“Year 10 will make or break me,” he said.

“I’m seven months behind with my school work, so I’ve got to work hard to catch up.

“I admitted to my mentor, Dean, that I’m scared of the future. He’s like a best mate — a mint guy. I can say stuff to him that I wouldn’t say to anyone else.”

Dean equally respects Jordan.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better person to mentor and the transformation of him as a person shows that young people don’t deserve the negative stereotypes which the media chooses to label them with,” said Dean.

“In the nine months I have known Jordan his confidence has grown immeasurably.

“He has spoken in front of community groups and even reduced a politician to tears when talking about his time on the Reclaim project.

“He very quickly became someone who could be relied upon to lead fellow mentees, always willing to try new activities when others were less sure of what to do.

“His enthusiasm over the entire scheme continually surprised me.

“I remember him arriving one cold winter Saturday morning at least 30 minutes before anyone else!

“He takes pride in where he lives and even helped clear snow last winter allowing many of his elderly neighbours to leave the house without fear of slipping on the snow!”

Jordan’s father, too, has been impressed with Jordan’s achievements.

“He says I’m getting there,”

said Jordan.

“I think he has noticed an improvement — mybehaviour has changed a lot.”

As for the Reclaim staff, he can’t speak highly enough of them.

In turn, Abigail Robertson, community projects officer, said: “After Jordan publicly spoke at a local Breightmet neighbourhood meeting about Reclaim and his mentor, and him and his dad met with MEP Claude Moraes, I realised that he had changed completely from the start of the project.

He had a real desire to make a positive difference in his community by becoming a leader amongst his peers.

“He was one of the few boys from the project that made the extra effort to represent Reclaim at occasions such as handing in a petition against racism from the group to The Mayor of Bolton and attending a Q&A session with Ed Miliband at Manchester Town Hall.

“He has impressed all the staff, volunteers and peers on Reclaim and has finished the project as an extremely mature young man who is striving to improve himself and his community.”

Abigail explained the aim of the project is to be “preventative”, working with people at risk of bullying or being bullied, being involved in crime, lacking in confidence or not reaching their potential.

“However they all do have the potential to be future leaders and achieve highly.

“The project helps enable them to not only reach their potential, but to speak to influential decision makers and make a positive contribution to their community,” she said.

All the boys were set challenges over the course of the project designed to increase their confidence, raise their aspirations, allow them to work on their skills and get them to try new opportunities they would normally not have a chance to try.

Among the latter were opportunities to create artwork for Bolton train station, an army training at Holcombe Moor and being interviewed by local employers.

To graduate the boys had to attend the events and keep in regular contact with their mentor. They also had to show they had made positive progress on the project.

Abigail said Jordan and his fellow mentees “all have the potential to be future leaders and achieve highly.”

And Dean said: “I know that Jordan will go on to become a responsible person who can make a positive impact in whatever he chooses to do in the future."

● Jordan Jones will be impersonating Michael Jackson at Sunshine Studios in Bolton on July 27 as part of a YMCA fund-raising event. For more information or to sponsor Jordan, please phone him on 07963 060 183.