Creating an AP offer in a Secondary School

IQM Guest Writer

 

Mark Tilling – Headteacher of High Tunstall College of Science

 

Presentation Slides from Mark’s Webinar

 

“Taking the plunge and opening an AP for yourself is daunting, getting it right is so important! The way forward is to have belief it will make a difference to young people.”

 

 

In February 2023 I attended a complex case discussion regarding a family whose children were at my school. It became very obvious that the family had been let down by many people and I did not want to be the next. Having been to many different schools, moving homes many times and having parents with complex needs, I knew that continuing to do just what we have always done would fail this family, so we set about a change in direction. AP is at short supply, the explosion in permanent exclusions has meant that any quality provision is full, therefore I approached my Governing Body about finding a building and opening up our own alternative provision offsite to support the onsite work we were already doing. My Governors were supportive of my vision, as far as it went, to provide an alternative to permanent exclusion for young people with complex trauma responses away from the main site, but still being able to access quality first teaching from the staff we employ. We found the “perfect” building for our small 20 place unit in “Greenbank” part of CiC Hartlepower, whose staff worked tirelessly to redecorate, carpet, ICT fit and prepare for our young people to land. It was a first of its kind in their centre, Peter and Paul had the most welcoming and wonderful view on what we were doing and gave us great support. Tracey, my Alternative Education Lead came along for the ride, she understood and agreed with my vision. From finding the building to opening our doors, it took five academic weeks, no mean feat, but more importantly the staff had the curriculum ready to go, enabling the young people to engage with their GCSE studies.

We knew that the cost of fitting out a new facility, moving 12 students to a new provision whilst leaving friends and feeling discarded by the school was going to be hard work, but we knew for this success we did not need to add to their trauma. In addition to the 10 HTCS students, we also integrated 2 students from The Horizons school (Hartlepool’s PRU) who had been permanently excluded from other schools. We knew that this facility would get these young people GCSEs, staying in mainstream wouldn’t. We had to persuade them and their parents we weren’t rejecting but supporting them. We were giving them a chance. Tracey made sure the staff were ready, Sarah, my Operations Manager gave me the resource, and my senior team supported what we were doing. Opening day came and went, no hitches; the students came in and engaged, it all went swimmingly, no issues. They all loved the new provision – they had a kitchen and social room, a table tennis table for downtime and ICT to support their access through Microsoft Teams, as well as classroom teachers visiting them. The CREATE centre was open and running!

Then we got our first bang, the young people behaved in a manner that wasn’t acceptable to the businesses, Peter and Paul told us not to worry, but we did, so we held an open day to explain why we were there and the needs of the students accessing the site. The businesses were so understanding that they started to talk about how they could support us in giving meaningful experiences to the young people. The centre was only opened for Year 10 in Year 1, Year 9 would join them in July once we settled and Year 11 alternative stayed onsite in our SHINE centre to finish their education, moving them would have been wrong. We were determined that the students were going to be successful and to instil this belief in them. Curriculum was demanding, but in some ways made easier from the Covid experience. Some staff were happy to “Teams” in and others were happy to use their spare time to visit the centre and offer teaching. The students had a core team of staff with them, a teacher and two HLTA’s, 1:3 approximately, dedicated, hardworking and talented, all to make sure achievement was possible. The focus was academic and standards were high. Year 1 came and went and we headed through Year 11 with student engagement improving every week; some did get fixed term suspensions, but our expectations on behaviour wasn’t lowered. The relationships formed were important, always a fresh start, never was the behaviour taken personally. We had further requests from The Horizon school to take more young people and we supported where we could.

The examinations season hit us in May 2024 and the students, some who had refused to sit SAT’s at primary, were ready to sit them, GCSE and BTECs at the ready. And they engaged, all of them, sitting their examinations with success and gaining grades at GCSE that no one expected them to – we were proud of them all! Remember, the only grade that is a fail is a U. Functional skills and vocational studies, mixed with academic results, was wonderful to see. Putting students into AP is a difficult decision, especially when it is offsite, the important thing we had to remember was that they were still members of our community. PROM invitations were given, coming up for “community “ days like our colour mudder and sports day, being rewarded for doing well and making sure senior staff keep in touch, something we did in abundance. In Autumn 2024 we even rewarded one student with a Senior Student accolade due to her brilliant engagement.

Some may say this is not inclusion, to me it is, it keeps them in education. It helps them get qualifications in a safe and secure environment and other young people are not affected by their “exhibited” behaviours. Instead the young people leave school with success and happy memories, something we want for every single student we serve as a College. A College I am proud to be Headteacher of. As we move into 2025, we are on the move again, we have outgrown the CREATE centre and need a bigger building. With high attendance and engagement we need more rooms, to consolidate the curriculum and offer more, and we are now planning for the next stage – moving to our new building and providing high quality AP and being part of the solution for the young people of Hartlepool.