Virtual School
Our Offer for Looked After Children
We have a team of teachers who provide direct support to individual children in care. We have primary and secondary specialists in Maths, English and Science.
We use a range of evidenced based approaches, including Reading Recovery, Success@Arithmetic and the Sandwell Maths Assessments, to help fill gaps in knowledge and prepare children and young people for school assessments and examinations. We have Educational Psychologists who can provide a range of assessments, interventions and advice.
Our Educational Psychologists support with assessing learning needs in a timely way, provide advice and consultations to schools, carers and social workers and deliver a range of training.
We monitor the Personal Education Plans and distribute the Pupil Premium Plus for children in care. The Pupil Premium Plus is shared with schools but also provides an enhanced virtual school offer, crisis support when needed and is used to purchase additional home learning resources and fund enrichment activities.
We provide a range of training to schools, carers and other professionals about supporting the education of children in care and those previously in care and run termly network meetings for Designated teachers.
Our Offer for Children previously in care.
The HIVE Team, Virtual School Offer, is for pupils attending North Tyneside schools who have been previously in care and have now achieved permanency through being adopted, living under a Special Guardianship Order or a Child Arrangement Order.
Schools receive the Pupil Premium Plus of £2530 for all children previously in care where their parents/guardians have notified the school of their eligibility. The school’s Designated Teacher now has oversight for children previously in care and is responsible for this funding and how it is used in school.
The Virtual School staff are available to offer advice and guidance to schools, social workers and families via our website, email or phone.
For more complex cases, we offer an Educational Psychology Consultation in school with parents / guardians to better understand the situation. This enables us to provide more detailed advice and guidance.
Our occupational therapist can provide a consultation for more complex cases too.
Resource materials can be found on our website for our In Balance Together programme, that supports with regulation and building stronger relationships. This can be accessed by all, alongside links to other websites we think could be useful.
We also offer face to face training sessions on how to support children and young people with Maths and English, the emotional support available in North Tyneside, The Thrive® Approach for families, the teenage brain, Friends Resilience and Therapeutic Parenting.
Our Offer for Previously Looked After Children
The HIVE Team, Virtual School Offer, is for pupils attending North Tyneside schools who have been previously looked after and have now achieved permanency through being adopted, living under a Special Guardianship Order or a Child Arrangement Order.
Schools receive the Pupil Premium Plus of £2345 for all previously looked after children, where their parents/guardians have notified the school of their eligibility. The school’s Designated Teacher now has oversight for previously looked after children and is responsible for this funding and how it is used in school.
The Virtual School staff are available to offer advice and guidance to schools, social workers and families via our website, email or phone.
For more complex cases, we offer an Educational Psychology Consultation in school with parents / guardians to better understand the situation. This enables us to provide more detailed advice and guidance.
Our occupational therapist can provide a consultation for more complex cases too.
We have some training materials on our website for our In Balance Together programme, that supports with regulation and building stronger relationships. This can be accessed by all, alongside links to other websites we think could be useful.
We also offer face to face training sessions on how to support children and young people with Maths and English, the emotional support available in North Tyneside, The THRIVE Approach for families, the teenage brain, Friends Resilience and have just developed a Therapeutic Parenting programme. Please check our website for training dates.
Who’s Who?
Senior Integrated Services Manager and Virtual School Head, Jane Pickthall, is Service Lead for the HIVE Team with responsibility for the outcomes of children and young people under the remit of the Virtual School. She also as strategic oversight of education to ensure provisions meet the needs of our children.
Frances Brady manages and co-ordinates the educational support delivered by our team of teachers as well as monitoring progress. She is a Secondary English specialist who also has qualifications in ESOL, SPLD (Dyslexia), Thrive® and Drawing & Talking. She provides support and guidance to schools, carers, and social workers.
Helen Westgarth offers support to children in care that have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) and provides support and guidance to schools, carers and social workers.
She is also responsible for monitoring the attendance of children who have a social worker assigned to them.
Steve Laidler offers direct support to key stage 4 pupils to improve GCSE outcomes in maths and science. Steve has also developed an offer for key stage 3 to help children catch up with missed learning in Maths.
Jane Raffell offers direct support to key stage 3 and 4 pupils to improve GCSE outcomes in maths and English. Jane is also a trained Thrive® practitioner and has a qualification in Drawing and Talking, supporting the emotional needs of secondary aged children.
Early Years specialist Sarah Wilkinson offers direct support in school particularly those in primary school requiring additional literacy and numeracy support. Trained in group Theraplay®, she delivers therapeutic interventions with children in small groups.
Primary Specialist Christine Petty offers direct support in school particularly those in primary school requiring additional literacy and numeracy support. She is a Thrive® practitioner and offers support and guidance to teachers and carers on therapeutic approaches. She also has a qualification in Drawing &Talking.
Wendy Jackson is the lead educational psychologist, but we benefit from the expertise and involvement of others in the Educational Psychology Service. The Educational Psychologists provide consultative work, carry out assessments, deliver training and offer direct interventions.
Gail Waldon offers advice to young people about Post 16 options. Provides on-going monitoring and evaluation of placements and qualifications post 16.
Documents
PEP Guides
Nursery PEP
School Age PEP
Post 16 PEP
