FEATURE FOCUS: ALTERNATIVE PROVISION


headship role in setting up a new primary alternative provision (Engage Academy) in 2009. Within a year I was asked to take on an Executive Head role between Engage Academy and Ethos College, which I did for the following eight years. In February 2017 Ethos College achieved an Outstanding Ofsted judgement. I was so proud that the hard work and commitment of our talented team had been recognised, having had the privilege to be part of the journey from inadequate to outstanding over a twelve-year period.


At that point I recognised that we needed to find ways to do more: to reach more vulnerable pupils, and to share the expertise that our team had developed. I therefore began to explore the potential of joining, or forming, an academy trust with our senior leaders and management board, knowing that as a Trust we would increase opportunity to develop new provision. That is where the concept of Ethos Academy Trust was formed and in 2018, our three founding academies in Kirklees (Engage Academy, Reach Academy and Ethos College) came together under the umbrella of Ethos Academy Trust. I applied for the role of CEO and was fortunate enough to be appointed.


What difference can you make as CEO? In my first year as CEO, I was also Head Teacher at Ethos College. I soon realised that I was unable to fulfil the requirements of both roles simultaneously. Stepping away from headship (and therefore moving further away from working with pupils) took some adjustment. Prior to taking on this role, I had not fully appreciated how different the role of CEO was to that of Head Teacher, particularly in terms of the breadth of team I now lead and the level of accountability to the Board, moving from school leadership to system leadership. However, I went into teaching to make a difference to children, and I recognise that whilst I no longer do this directly, I have the opportunity to impact the outcomes of more children and young people in the role I now fulfil. Ethos Academy Trust will soon have tripled the number of pupils it serves from when it formed in 2018.


What are the biggest challenges facing the sector?


One of the most frustrating things we face is the misunderstanding and misconceptions around the sector. I am passionate about expelling the myth that all ‘AP’ children are alike. There is not a type – all children are unique. The wider public narrative, outside of the sector, is worryingly judgmental and negative. This not only impacts the morale of our incredible young people who are working so hard to overcome serious social, emotional, mental or physical challenges, it also affects the morale of everyone that works within the sector. Sadly, it even deters excellent educators from coming into the sector in the first place and it certainly scares families and carers of children who find themselves in the alternative provision system.


In addition to funding barriers and changing the narrative, the other main challenge is recruitment - attracting the highest calibre of teaching and support staff to meet the needs of our pupils. I am keen to raise awareness that it is possible to have an incredibly rewarding, fulfilling, varied career in alternative and specialist


January 2023


provision. As a result of the opportunities I have been blessed with, I am passionate about supporting others to develop and progress within Ethos Academy Trust. There are so many amazing examples of staff who have joined the Trust and been supported to progress (e.g., inclusion workers training to become teachers and progressing to middle and senior leadership roles). At Ethos Academy Trust, we are committed to investing in, developing and retaining our talented staff.


What is the most important thing you want to achieve in your term as CEO? It’s simple. I share this with every member of our team. We want to maximise the life chances of as many children and young people as possible through the continued growth and development of nurturing, inclusive learning communities within and beyond Ethos Academy Trust.


What does good Alternative Provision look like?


Alternative provision (AP) is successful when it is used as a relatively short stay solution and accessed at the right time for children whose immediate needs are unable to be met at a mainstream school. Providing the right environment and provision at a critical time in a child’s life is essential if we really want to improve life chances. Creating the space to assess the precise needs of the child enables us to determine what their long-term education pathway should be. The solution might not necessarily be AP – it might be mainstream or a more specialist provision.


Although current funding makes this extremely challenging, AP is meant to be a temporary intervention to re-engage pupils with school. There are many different reasons why a pupil may need this intervention, and their needs and development journeys vary considerably. They may only need to stay as little as one term, or they may need to stay for two years. However, due to lack of funding, limited specialist provision at mainstream school, or special school places available, pupils can often end up staying for much longer simply because there is nowhere else for them to go.


What have been your highlights this year? Those who work in our sector will know that we measure things differently and small wins, such as a pupil showing trust for the first time or wanting to actually come into school, means just as much, if not more than an academic grade rise. Of course, we want our pupils to achieve their potential and we work together to build their confidence and resilience to do this. Over the past 12 months we have developed and implemented a Trust-wide school improvement framework and supported all of our academies to further develop and deliver a broad, exciting and aspirational curriculum. We refined and developed accurate and meaningful self- assessment processes to measure our overall effectiveness at Trust and academy level. As a result of our SEMH strategic development, we have seen strong outcomes for pupils in their academic and SEMH progress – this includes an impressive set of GCSE results in summer and a rapid rise in attendance across the Trust. To challenge and change the wider public narrative regarding SEMH pupils and provision,


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we have developed a communication strategy at Academy and Trust level and partnered with an Education communications team, Papillon. We want to raise the profile of EAT and the sector to ensure the many positive stories we hear about every day are shared with the wider public. We sponsored an AP Academy, with a priority focus on improving the quality of provision and outcomes for pupils. Evolve Academy has now become part of the EAT family. We also led the development of a new SEMH Special Free School, Elements Academy which opened in September 2022.


We continue to work in partnership with other schools, Trusts, local authorities and organisations to establish new and improved models of supporting learners with SEMH needs and contribute towards wider sector improvement through investment in key strategic partnerships and forums with a shared sense of purpose in order to achieve the greatest impact. We are developing our roles as experts and influencers on inclusion in relation to SEMH policy and practice at a local, regional and national level. We have effectively deployed leadership capacity and expertise and supported the development and embedding of inclusive practices within and beyond the Trust. We are continuing to develop expert practitioners in inclusive, SEND practice and will remain committed to investing in the development of a strong, healthy, engaged and motivated workforce of inclusive leaders, teachers and support staff who excel at securing outstanding outcomes for pupils with SEMH needs within and beyond the Trust.


What are the Trust’s plans for the future? We have put a structure in place to support our strategy for continual growth, to achieve our ambition to help as many children and young people as we can. We plan to remain a specialist Trust, delivering high quality provision for pupils with SEHM and wider SEND needs across our AP and Special schools. Our level of specialism is pretty unique – there aren’t many specialist Trusts purely devoted to SEHM or SEND. We want to maintain our focus and purpose to maximise the quality of provision for arguably the children that need it most.


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