Lawrence House School

The government introduced a range of measures in attempts to raise educational attainment, enhancing the prospects for future employment as well as personal and family fulfillment (DfES, 2007). However, the reasons for the lower attainment of looked after children are complex, including family background, pre-care experiences, instability, and shortcomings in the care environment, low expectations and poor communication between social workers, carers and schools (Harker et al., 2004; Comfort, 2007).”

Sir Martin Neary’s 2016 review of residential care in England cites some challenges facing young people in care in relation to education:

• 53% of children living in children’s homes have a statement of special educational needs or an Educational, Health and Care plan, and a further 28% have identified special educational needs without statements or EHC plans. This compares to 20% and 34% for all looked after children, respectively.

• In 2013, about 62% had clinically significant mental health difficulties; and, 74% were reported to have been violent or aggressive in the past six months.

• Leaving care at 16 or 17 years of age is associated with very poor outcomes: only a quarter of young people who left care at 16 years of age were in education at 19 compared with 40 per cent of young people who left aged 18 and over – and only 6 per cent of young people from all placements go on to higher education. After leaving care they are also likely to have a cluster of problems including poor mental health, getting into trouble, being unemployed and periods of homelessness.

However, Lawrence House School was set up not only in response to the general poor educational outcomes young people were achieving in both mainstream and alternative educational provision, but specifically in response to a lack of local quality mainstream or alternative educational provision that was able to meet the needs of the young people we were looking after.

As a school, we believe wherever possible, looked after children should be educated in mainstream provision, but understand that in many cases it may take time to rebuild confidence and ability to learn. Our understanding of the barriers cited above, as well as the impact of multiple trauma, means we build towards mainstream through intense one to one teaching and a creative curriculum that builds resilience and engagement, as well as subject knowledge. We are able to offer shared educational provision, with a mix of local college provision.

Before admission, we build up an individual profile of each young person, outlining as full as possible picture of the young person and their educational experience and factors influencing their future education. Where there are gaps, a range of tests will be completed to develop that full understanding. Educational targets are set through the IEP incorporating ECHP and PEP.

Each young person has their own individualised timetable which covers as a minimum English and Maths and a specialised mental health programme designed to build resilience and re-engagement, which is linked to physical development and PSHE elements in the curriculum. Amongst our team of tutors, we also have expertise in maths, English, sciences (understanding the world), physical education, creative arts, drama, and PSHE. We have young people on a range of syllabi, starting from pre-entry level functional skills, through to Level 2 Functional Skills and where appropriate, up to and including GCSE. Our staff provide outstanding learning opportunities for our young people, teaching in bespoke classrooms and in settings within the community where young people are able to do voluntary work or achieve awards such as Duke of Edinburgh.