Alternative Education Pathways
We recognise for our students that there are layers of complexity when it comes to ensuring our students access the education they are entitled to, deserve, and we need to support them to overcome the barriers they face.
Whilst our priority is to ensure all students attend school, access learning, and achieve positive outcomes that allow them to open doors to aspirational careers in the future, we are an inclusive school that embraces a personalised approach for each individual student, and we recognise some students need more support than others.
Our Alternative Education provision is underpinned by our missed learning strategy. Missed learning is defined as learning that is missed causing significant gaps in knowledge due to several barriers that our students may have experienced during their time in education.
The missed learning strategy identifies the challenges some of our students face with regular attendance and offers a personalised, proactive response so that we close gaps in knowledge, increase accessibility to school and give students the tools they need to succeed.
We have used our rigorous data analysis to identify key categories of students and the reasons they currently experience gaps in knowledge due to missed learning.
The principle is to provide each category with a method of overcoming the barriers presented and to increase student attendance over time so that students can access the broad and rich Meridian Curriculum.
| Provision | Description |
|---|---|
| Crest | Critical or severe attendance from learning or students that require an adaptation to their timetable |
| Alpine | Emotionally based school avoidance or long term medical absence |
| Serentiy | Additional support for students on the SEND register |
| Horizon | MHS online tutoring for KS3 students who are awaiting a specialist placement |
Crest
To ride a crest of something is to enjoy exceptional success because of a particular event of situation. We want our students to feel supported to ride that crest and be successful in their learning. We understand that our students sometimes make poor behaviour choices, but we understand that this as a form of communicating about what they need from us need. As such we aim to create serenity, that feeling of calmness to support the need being communicated.
Students who access the Crest pathway will have a bespoke timetable and for the first 6 weeks will be based in the learning lab in Summit. They will have access to specialist sessions that will support them in making positive choices so they can successfully reintegrate back into lessons once their timetable has been reviewed.
Students will receive SALT assessments and additional SEND testing when joining the Crest Pathway.
Alpine
An Alpine is the most extensive mountain range reflecting the extensive support our students will receive whilst participating on this pathway and a level of personalisation they need to overcome the challenges they face.
Alpine pathway students may have missed learning due to school avoidance, anxiety, SEMH need, or medical absence, which has led to increased anxiety in returning to school due to being behind in their learning. Alpine is a student led provision which aims to reintergrate students back into mainstream classrooms.
Students will have an allocated keyworker from the Summit or Pinnacle team who will monitor their attendance and hold fortnightly meetings with parents/carers to review the provision, where agreements will be made to attend mainstream lessons.
Students will receive SALT assessments and additional SEND testing when joining the Alpine pathway.
Serenity
Serenity is a state of being calm, peaceful and untroubled. This pathway is for students who have an EHCP, are awaiting an EHC needs assessments or whose learning differences mean that they need a completely personalised provision.
Students on the Serenity pathway have a keyworker, who will usually be a member of the Pinnacle team which includes our SENDCo, Deputy SENDCo, Lead Learning Mentors, LSAs and PWLs. The keyworkers will be student and parents’ first point of contact to discuss students’ provision and ensure they have the support they need.
Every student on the Serenity pathway will have support and a provision that looks different because every students’ need is unique to them. A student may have a timetable that means they spend much of their time within Pinnacle, partaking in small-group interventions or working in our Serenity learning lab. On the other hand, a student on the Serenity pathway may spend most of their time in mainstream classes, with additional support, and simply need access to Pinnacle for times they feel overwhelmed or dysregulated, where they are supported by a member of the Pinnacle team to complete a sensory circuit and return to lessons.
Students’ provision on this pathway is reviewed at least half-termly, but may be reviewed as frequently as is needed. Those students with EHCPs will continue to have their Annual Reviews for their EHCPs as usual with the SENDCo or Deputy SENDCo.
