Connex

Connex Alternative Provision

Connex Alternative Provision (AP) is a specialist provision offering a supportive and nurturing environment for Children and Young People from Year 3 to 11, with complex Social, Emotional and/or Mental Health (SEMH)/medical needs which have prevented them from successfully engaging in or attending school.

What is our Therapy and SEND Offer?

SEMH is often used in education as a catchall and a deficit model. It refers to broad array of needs based on the Children and Young People's difficulty to regulate their emotions or behaviour. Connex AP will provide a personalised approach to provision and looks at the origin and function of the Children and Young Person's behaviour when constructing the appropriate educational and therapeutic model. Early assessment and identification of need is key. Our AP will provide the flexibility of provision to support the diverse and often complex need of our SEMH population. As a result, the Connex AP will be flexible in its approach and respond to a range of neurodiverse need including:

Connex AP will offer timely, support of the highest quality to Children and Young People whose SEMH needs present as a barrier to accessing and engaging with mainstream education and need a specialist educational and therapeutic environment. Our delivery model will ensure that Children and Young People are prepared for adulthood so they can live healthy, independently, and successfully transition into employment.

Our vision will be underpinned by the application of a consistent model and approach. Building trust with Children and Young People is a core component of our model. Without trust, the Children and Young People won’t feel safe, which will in turn remove their opportunities to engage positively and build emotional resilience. This positive secure base will support the Children and Young People will to learn, know or remember, therefore limiting progress through the planned curriculum. Our core model of support will ensure the Children and Young People will build trust, feel safe and subsequently learn.

Children and Young People with an SEMH profile will often struggle to verbalise their emotions and history. As a result, their presentation may be challenging. Although the AP cannot change the Children and Young People’s experience, it can change the way they respond to it. Therefore, a key set of values that support the Children and Young People’s education and therapeutic experience will provide the vehicle to deliver positive outcomes for children.

Our Values

Our values are built around the Dan Hughes PACE approach and include:

Playfulness: The purpose of playfulness is to enjoy being together in an unconditional way. This gives the message that the relationship is stronger than things that go wrong.

Acceptance: Unconditional acceptance is fundamental to Children and Young People’s sense of safety because it shows that you have connected with their feelings without judgement, and without seeking to reassure their feelings away.

Curiosity: It’s important to be curious about Children and Young People’s thoughts, feelings, wishes and intentions: they may still be learning that other people can think about them in this way or that they can be held in mind by an adult without judgement and accusation at all.

Empathy: When you show empathy, you are showing Children and Young People that their feelings are important to you, and that you are alongside them in their difficulty. You are showing that you can cope with the hard times with them, and you are trying hard to understand how it feels.

Connex AP and its associated stakeholders will work closely together to model these vision and values. We will employ effective trauma informed practice, providing coherent ‘wrap around’ support for the Children and Young People and their families. This has the aim of helping Children and Young People become more emotionally resilient and better placed to engage with life and learning. Trauma informed practice supports a whole-setting approach to wellbeing and has the impact of improving attendance, behaviour and attainment, helping to give Children and Young People the confidence and skills they need to integrate into their communities, improve the quality of family life, de-escalate family crisis, and set a path to establishing positive life chances.

What is the Curriculum Offer?

All Children and Young People at Connex AP receive a Personalised Support Plan (PSP) that documents and outlines the curriculum and support that will be offered to each Children and Young People. All Children and Young People are supported by a dedicated team of teachers, teaching assistants and pastoral staff. Personalisation is the cornerstone of our structures; the curriculum is bespoke and programmes are crafted to meet individual needs which demands a totally flexible and adaptable approach to teaching and learning from all involved. We work flexibly in the home, online, in the local community and on-site. It is expected that timetables move from an outreach model to a hybrid model of outreach, online learning and on-site education with the long-term goal that Children and Young People attend the Connex site for their provision. When appropriate Connex will look to re-integrate the child or young person back into a mainstream or specialist provision.

Children and Young People benefit from small group approach with access to consistent members of staff. This model supports the vision of trust, safety, learning and allows the CYP to develop a sense of belonging. Transitions will be reduced to further reduce anxiety. Connex AP understand that many of the Children and Young People may find social interaction and managing relationships challenging and therefore are able to scale up or down class sizes.

Primary Children can access the breadth of the Primary National Curriculum. Teachers personalise, adapt and focus schemes of learning to the individual needs of the Child. Reading and phonics are prioritised, along with emotional literacy skill development.

Secondary children can access the breadth of the Secondary National Curriculum. However, how they access the curriculum will be dependent on the presenting need of the child. They will access teachers and support staff who will work with them to create a PSP that provides the emotional literacy support to help them manage their mental health needs.

How are CYP prepared for adulthood?

We appreciate that every developmental journey to adulthood is unique. Our curriculum has a specific Personal Development focus which helps our Children and Young People develop the knowledge and skills to inform post-education planning regards employment, independent living, community inclusion and health. The Annual Review of EHCPs encompasses a personal centred 'My Life, My Way' PATHs approach to planning provision and the Child or Young Person’s next steps.

What does a placement look like?

Each placement will be designed to follow an approach of assessing each child and young person, intervening in an appropriate way, supporting them to re-integrate (whether this is into their own setting or into Connex) and then monitor, to ensure that there I still the appropriate support for success.

Each placement will be tailored to the individual needs of the child or young person. Tier 2 placements are time limited and aim to ensure that the child or young person is reintegrated back into their current setting successfully. These placements can be up to 18 hours per week – over specific days to meet the needs of the the child or young person and referring school/setting. Tier 3 placement are longer term, where the the child or young person is transitioning to a new phase or setting in their education.

Connex AP is currently an Unregistered AP based in Swindon, however plans are currently in place to register during the 2024/25 academic year, and expand our service across Swindon and the local area. Referrals can be made from the Local Authority, schools or other settings.