Q&A: ACADEMY21 Elevating educational experiences
Amy Husband recently joined alternative provision specialist Academy21 as the Head of School Academic. Bringing 14 years of senior leadership experience as a Headteacher in other schools and a SEN leader, she is committed to ensuring that Academy21 provision gives students a solid foundation to build their confidence, self-belief, and academic success. We find out more in this Q&A.
What motivated you to move from mainstream to
alternative provision? My passion is securing the best outcomes for every pupil in my setting. From having my first class as a Year 1 teacher right through to being a Head Teacher of both primary and
secondary age ranges, I have always tried to ensure every child can reach their academic and personal potential. Throughout my career, I have encountered students with various additional needs, which sparked a genuine interest in ensuring we’re best able to meet these needs. I embarked on a SENDCo qualification in 2012 and specialised in on-site alternative provisions. For some children and young people, AP is key to re-establishing a love of learning, a curiosity about their future options and re-engagement with their education. APs are about fresh starts and personalised approaches rooted in compassionate, respectful relationships and high academic aspirations.
What are your biggest goals and focus areas in your new role at Academy21? As a DfE-accredited provider, Academy 21 is an industry leader and trusted name. My biggest goal is to continue to grow our excellent reputation, broaden our offer, and work closely with LAs, MATs, and individual schools to fully meet the emerging needs of the mainstream sector and the pupils it serves.
I prioritise ensuring that every pupil who comes through our virtual doors has an educational experience that builds confidence, self-esteem, and academic excellence so that they feel well-equipped to successfully re-integrate into mainstream education. Our fantastic team of teachers delivers a high-quality and personalised curriculum. As our team grows, my mission is to keep Academy21 at the forefront of innovation and pedagogical excellence.
What are some of the most significant challenges you have encountered in SEN support in schools?
I have encountered various challenges, from lack of funding to increasingly complex student needs. In mainstream settings, resourcing the provision for some of our most vulnerable and complex learners can be difficult. Many children and young people with SEND don’t just require additional teaching strategies or reasonable adjustments but need a different physical space to work from where they don’t face the challenges of busy, noisy communal areas and other sensory inputs, which can cause distress and dysregulation. We all know behaviour is a communication of
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need, and recently, I have experienced an increase in behaviour incidents where, upon digging a little deeper, the behaviour stems from an unmet need of some sort. The challenge for mainstream schools is that not all needs can be catered for safely and practically, which is precisely why alternative provision exists and has enormous success for pupils who need something a little more bespoke, whether for a short or longer term.
Academy21 is a financially viable solution that has the potential to positively impact schools, pupils and their families in a really quick timeframe. We meet pupils ‘where they are at’ and prioritise relationship building, using a compassionate, empathic approach and building self-esteem. This way, our pupils can re-engage with their learning and develop their confidence at their own pace. These elements lay a secure foundation for academic learning, ultimately for successful and sustained reintegration into their mainstream setting.
How can leaders bring educational psychology into their curriculum and teaching methods?
I am passionate about psychology and still incorporate much of what I learned from my degree into my teaching and leadership practice. Educational Psychologists have taught me how to creatively adapt teaching methods like ensuring we have visual scaffolds and prompts in our classrooms (virtual or physical) to reduce the pressure on auditory memory. This positively impacts the ‘cognitive load’ a pupil carries and frees up space in their working memory to engage with the lessons’ content. When considering the overlap between psychology and teaching, I’m also interested in the neuroscience behind child and adolescent development. If a child or young person is dysregulated, they enter ‘fight/flight/freeze’ mode, with quickened breathing, feeling hot, and
an urge to leave the room or become vocal or aggressive.
Neuroscience shows the brain is hierarchical; when dysregulated, the limbic system and cortex (responsible for language, thought, and learning) are inaccessible. Understanding this changes the game; teachers shift from verbal reasoning to addressing physiological needs to re-regulate the child. Repeated empathic responses strengthen neural pathways, building trust. When this is achieved, academic learning soars.
Looking ahead, what excites you the most about the future of online alternative provision?
The potential it has to change lives. Online alternative providers like Academy21 can quickly respond to the sector’s emerging needs and are not geographically limiting, reducing the ‘postcode lottery’ of whether physical places are available in a school or an AP.
Many of our students are much more confident behind a screen; at first glance, this might seem like a concern, but we flip that misconception on its head because we are ambitious and encourage participation and socialisation in other ways. It might start by simply contributing to a class discussion in the chat box and then develop into voice contributions or discussions of their learning with others. Alternative provision can alter a young person’s life trajectory, and online alternative provision adds another layer to the flexibility and innovation we can deliver. If I could pin down one thing that excites me the most, it would be the prospect of reading future success stories of the pupils who have come through our virtual doors, knowing we’ve played a pivotal role in their academic and personal journey.
For more information visit: u
https://academy21.co.uk/
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