Newcastle Virtual School

The Children and Families Act 2014 requires each local authority in England to appoint at least one person for the purpose of discharging the local authority’s duty to promote the educational achievement of its Looked After Children (LAC) and Young People (LAYP). The Virtual School head teacher (VSH) leads on this and the Virtual School is the support service for undertaking this role in supporting the education of all our looked after children and looked after young people.

The Virtual School works closely with social care, schools, carers and other services in order to fulfill the aforementioned role.  The service offers advice, training and support to carers, schools and other key services working with our LAC and LAYP.

The Virtual School focuses on a number of key areas such as:

School Attendance

The Virtual School team, in collaboration with dedicated social worker promotes the importance of school attendance with LAC and LAYP and their carers by:

• monitoring attendance
• responding promptly to developing patterns of non-attendance
• responding to referrals from social workers, schools, carers and other professionals
• celebrating and rewarding good attendance

Achievement & Progress

The Virtual School team supports the attainment, achievement and progress of LAC and LAYP by taking a lead role within the Personal Education Plan  (PEP) process and case management of individual LAC cases and by;

• providing information, advice and guidance to carers, social workers and other professionals
• monitoring individual LAC and LAYP attainment and progress
• working very closely with social workers, designated teachers and other school staff to increase inclusion, achievement and progression and reduce exclusion and disengagement
• appropriately challenging social workers and schools in order to ensure quality support for individual LAC and LAYP
• working closely with other services, for example Special Educational Needs, Admissions, Exclusions, for LAC and LAYP placed both within and outside of the authority
• working with our children and young people and their carers to maintain placements and reduce exclusions
• seeking to ensure that educational provision is well matched to needs
• providing direct teaching support in key subjects such as maths, English and science where support has been identified
• providing educational resources such as the Letterbox reading programme and maths support resources

Progression

The Virtual School team supports the progression of our LAYP onto independence and adulthood by;

• continuing to work very closely with all relevant parties including the young person, schools, colleges, social workers and carers to ensure planning and support is in place to ensure successful progression from each point of transition
• coordination of post 16 support via the Virtual School dedicated worker who case manages post 16 LAYP, and provides additional funding and resourcing to reduce barriers to progression
• working in collaboration with local universities on programmes such as Choices (increasing progression to Higher Education for LAC)
• focusing strongly and working very collaboratively with the SEND Support, Assessment and Review Team and Leaving Care teams to reduce the chances of LAC and LAYP becoming not engaged in education, employment or training (NEET)
• providing quality work experience placements at key stage 4