North Yorkshire Virtual School – Learning Homes and Caring Schools

North Yorkshire Virtual School – Learning Homes and Caring Schools

Welcome to our website, where we hope you will find all the information you require. Should you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

What is a Virtual School?

The Virtual School consists of all the Children in Care and Care Leavers of North Yorkshire, whether they are placed in a North Yorkshire setting or elsewhere in the country. We are not a teaching institution, but a way of bringing together the information about children and young people who are looked after, as if they were in a single school. In this way their progress can be closely tracked, and we can also offer support and intervention in a more targeted and strategic way. The Virtual School also provides advice and information for care experienced young people.

What are Learning Homes and Caring Schools?

The education and care of ‘Looked After Children’ are closely entwined. The child is core to our thinking and must remain central to both education and care systems. It is important that education and care work together as a team. By doing this we can work together to support the child by thinking creatively and valuing quality relationships. ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ (Aristotle).

The Virtual School works on a value system of empowerment, collaboration and mutual respect. We work most effectively when we understand each other’s needs.

Whether you are a parent, a guardian, a foster carer, a residential home carer or a social worker, your importance to the child’s learning is key. A learning home is where you understand how to use your relationships to support a child with their learning. A caring school is where quality relationships are recognised and where teaching staff understand how to support a child, who may have Adverse Childhood Experiences, in a nurturing, trauma responsive way.

‘It takes a village to raise a child’ (Traditional African Proverb).

Learning Homes and Caring Schools is a thread, woven through all that Virtual School do. It is the aim of all the training and support offered to encourage this approach.

What we do

The duty of the Virtual School in North Yorkshire is to raise the educational achievement of our children, promote their emotional wellbeing and improve the life chances of a traditionally vulnerable group of young people. We strive to achieve this by providing support within schools and colleges to ensure the children we care for can make the most of their education.

In addition to our work in schools and colleges, we also work with the wider Children & Families Service, as well as external organisations. We do this in order to provide our children in care with all the opportunities and experiences outside of school that we would want for our own children. At the very heart of the Virtual School is the belief that children who enter care should not be detrimentally affected by their experiences, but should be empowered to achieve their goals and ambitions.

Our team of highly experienced and dedicated professionals work to achieve our aims by:

Providing direct educational support to children in care at school when appropriate;
Ensuring the educational needs of children in care are well understood through having an up-to-date detailed and high-quality Personal Education Plan (PEP) using the North Yorkshire ePEP system (electronics Personal Education Plan);
Ensuring Special Educational Needs & Disabilities (SEND) are identified and supported appropriately;
Ensuring that the emotional, mental and physical health needs of children in care are understood and supported;
Providing training to schools to enable them to better support the varying needs of our Looked After Children across all phases of education;
Monitoring the attendance and behaviour of Looked After Children in the educational environment and providing support where needed;
Supporting children attending Out of County Schools to ensure they are receiving a level of education that we would expect for our own children;
Working with designated teachers (DT) and social workers to support school admissions and transitions from one school to another;
Supporting children to move from part-time provision to full-time provision by supporting their underlying needs;
Working with schools and other settings to reduce exclusions, including preventing children from being permanently excluded from schools;
Leading projects and initiatives that give children in our care a range opportunities that can help them develop, both personally and academically;
Raising aspirations and encouraging ambition for children in our care.

Contacts:

Virtual School Head
Email: Julie.Bunn@northyorks.gov.uk
Tel: 01609 532169

Virtual School Team
Email: virtualschool@northyorks.gov.uk
Tel: 01609 533231

Useful links