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The Inspired Directions School – A REAL Alternative

Inspired Directions Alternative Provision School students look out across the City of LondonThe Inspired Directions School has joined the REAL Alternatives Hub, a new forum for alternative providers to develop innovative teaching practices. The term Alternative Provision (AP) covers a range of services – including pupil referral units, hospital teaching services, and independent special schools like Inspired Directions. The school provides alternative education for young people who, because of exclusion, SEN, illness or other reasons, are not able to access mainstream education.

The Hub is a fantastic opportunity for leaders from alternative providers across London to collaborate. Educators from 10 APs will work together to tackle some of the many challenges facing vulnerable and disengaged young people.

The programme, launched in February, will bring educators together at multiple workshops over the coming months. This will cumulate with a showcase event at this year’s London Alternative Provision Conference.

Funded by the Greater London Authority, and led by TBAP and the Innovation Unit, the Hub’s model uses working groups to address some of the issues facing alternative providers. The challenges covered include how to assess ‘real world’ project-based learning; how to embed new technologies in delivery; how to develop a personalised curriculum; and how to build meaningful partnerships across the sector.

The Inspired Directions School has joined the Assessment working group, and will be working with colleagues from WAC Arts in Camden to develop new assessment frameworks for alternative education settings.

“Assessing the students attending alternative provision is a real issue,” said Robin Childs, Headteacher of the Inspired Directions School. “Because our learners have such complex and diverse needs, one-size-fits-all assessment can be a hindrance and does not capture much of their progress. Finding more meaningful ways of measuring their development will be a great step forward for the school and the students themselves, so we’re really excited to be taking part in this process.”

All the practices produced by the working groups will be shared at the London AP Conference. The programme aims to build innovative practices in the sector, therefore the methods developed will be shared with AP schools across and beyond the capital.

For more information about the school, please visit the Inspired Directions webpage or call 020 7275 6068.