Hello and welcome to the Arbour Academy website.
Arbour Academy is part of Kings Academy Trust and provides a small nurturing school environment for vulnerable young people who are unable to access a mainstream school placement due to mental health needs.
Arbour Academy provides access to a broad and balanced curriculum in a small school based setting of 65 learners. Therapeutic interventions and pastoral care form part of our provision offer to support our young people and enable them to access and re-engage with their education.
Alongside this learners benefit from a high quality personal development curriculum and pastoral care to support their needs, build confidence and life skills to prepare them for life outside of the classroom.
Arbour Academy supports 65 young people through 3 different types of provision:
Arbour's Key stage 3 provision supports up to 18 learners from yr 7, 8 and 9 in a small, nurturing, school based setting situated in our separate annexe, next to our main school building. Key stage 3 offer two small classes with a Teacher and a TA to support each class. Learners benefit from a well planned, structured and sequenced curriculum that is broad and balanced.
In Key Stage 3 learners study English, Maths and Science alongside thematic Project Based Learning which incorporates Humanities, Technologies, Creative and Performing Arts and Languages. In addition to this all learners study Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development through specific SMSC lessons and form time activities linked to our SMSC calendar and personal, social, health and economic education through weekly PSHE lessons. Physical Education is offered through our forrest schools approach, outdoor education curriculum and on-site physical activities such as table tennis, football, tennis and boxing.
In addition to this learners also benefit from 1:1 support from our qualified pastoral team, tailored academic and therapeutic interventions and access to our school counsellor and therapy animals.
Arbours Key stage 4 provision offers a broad and balanced curriculum at Entry Level, Functional Skills and GCSE level. Key stage 4 supports 32 learners and is situated in our main building. Learners enjoy 4 small classes of 8 learners each class supported by 1 teacher and 1 TA.
In Key Stage 4 learners study English Language, Maths and Double Award Science at the level appropriate for their ability. For those more able learners there is the opportunity to study additional core GCSE's in Maths Statistics and English Literature. In addition to core qualifications learners have the opportunity to choose from a number of GCSE (or equivalent) vocational option subjects including; Hospitality and Catering, Hair and Beauty and Personal Growth and Wellbeing. Alongside this suite of qualifications all learners study discreet ICT and SMSC, ASDAN qualifications in PSHE and CEIAG. Physical Education is offered through the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze and Silver Award and all learners have access to additional physical education activities such as table tennis, football, tennis and boxing.
If learners join us part way through a qualification we will support the completion of this qualification and work in partnership with the main school to achieve this.
In addition to our on site provisions we are proud to offer an outreach provision to our Local Authority and partner schools. Through our outreach provision we aim to support young people who may have been absent from school for a significant period of time. Our outreach programme offers young people the opportunity to attend Arbour Academy for a 1:1 Art therapy session for up to 12 weeks whilst receiving full support form our experienced Pastoral team, school counsellor, family support worker and our SENDCO. We will work closely with the referring school to re-engage these young people back into a school setting and ensure a robust support package is in place. Following this programme young people may be referred into one of Arbours full time on site provisions or may integrate into their mainstream school with our support.
Referrals for Arbour Academy can be made via the local authority or through mainstream schools.