Education 1st
We have worked with local authority and area schools as a trusted and successful alternative learning provider since 2012, offering high quality alternative learning provision for vulnerable children and young people. We specialise in making education provision for: Children aged 8 – 16+ who have been excluded or at risk of exclusion, Children with SEND and SEMH, including those with EHCPs or undergoing EHCNA, Children in Care or with a Social Worker, Children with a CP Plan, including those at risk of CSE and CCE, Children Missing Education. Our service includes: Robust Safeguarding and Child Protection procedures, Ofsted school inspection framework compliance and Transport to and from our provision.
At Education 1st we are passionate about supporting excluded and vulnerable children to access and reengage with education. Local Authority and School-based commissioning partners can be confident about our:
- Curriculum / Service offer
- Management of student attendance
- Achieving outcomes for learners
- Personalised learning
- Keeping learners safe
- Environmental management
- Health and safety
- Partnership working
- Compliance with equality legislation
- Economic and financial standing
- Appropriate Insurances
The Education 1st Model
We provide education for up to 18 hours a week during school term time, in compliance with DfE guidance on non-school settings. We also work with children and young people (CYP, including children-in care) during school holidays. The service facilitates the building of positive relationships with adults and peers, in supportive learning environments. We have adopted a trauma informed approach that enables young people to re-engage with learning. Classroom and active learning sessions provide bespoke and small group lessons, programmes, and activities, focusing on child-centred learning. We provide an achievable platform to facilitate and demonstrate progress.
Our curriculum enables CYP to progress socially, emotionally, and academically. We pride ourselves on the excellent relationships between staff and students.
Children receive a personalised set of both SEMH and Academic targets near the start of their placement. Input from other agencies is also used to inform best practice when setting these goals. The curriculum includes time-tabled 1:1 mentoring sessions. The mentoring is a key strategy to enable students to develop a mindset that enables them to learn effectively.
Mentors help our students engage in activities that promote their social, emotional, and mental health. They are encouraged to be able to manage themselves and their emotions, become more resilient, learn to stay safe and communicate effectively. Each student follows a PSHE curriculum with formal activities that support their informal learning.
Alongside individualised learning packages, (we) offer a varied range of enrichment activities including Fishing, Boxing, Strength and Conditioning, Teambuilding, Football, Dance, Cookery and Life Skills, Educational Trips and Visits, Gardening, and Bowling. Main area focus is around accommodating, addressing, and seeking to overcome SEMH needs, by building positive relationships with adults and peers - if young people have a sound base in this area, learning and achievement follows.
Core Learning and Progress
Our core offer incudes Maths, English, Cookery, life skills, PSHE. Each young person receives quality advice and guidance to help them, and their parents/carers make decisions about the best courses and pathways for their future, supported by our Outcomes Coordinator.
Within the classroom, pupils are given an Individual Student Support Plan. Each student is made aware of their termly targets which focus on academic engagement, maths and English. These are linked to school SEND Support Plans, EHCPs or Educational Psychologist recommendations where relevant.
Staff monitor student progress across the different subject areas. Parents/Carers are invited to discuss their child's progress and to see their child's work. Staff seek to involve students actively in their own learning and assessment and to encourage them to recognise their achievements and to be aware of their own potential.
Onsite, students are timetabled for 2 lessons a week which enables them to work towards their specific Academic targets. Tailoring lessons towards a student's interests helps them feel more comfortable in a classroom setting, using a visual timetable and chunked tasks assists in managing distractions, online software supports our students with their word and number work and interactive, hands-on learning provides an engaging context for our maths and literacy topics.
Evidence of both off and onsite learning is posted daily to a student's Seesaw Profile using learning objectives which demonstrates their progress within a personal target. This online platform enables Education 1st to record and track a student's journey and share it with families, commissioning bodies and other professionals.
Reporting
Progress is reviewed on a termly basis when students are given the chance to reflect on their learning and share their voice. Student’s progress is shared via termly written reports with home, school, or other commissioning bodies.