Transitions
At Ancora House School, we have a dedicated Transition Team to support young people when they are ready to transition back to school, college, apprenticeships, volunteering or work.
Our education team have a tutorial with the young person when they first attend Ancora School to find out what issues/barriers they have had in school/colleges; this then informs us of what to include in the Education Support Plan.
The Education Support Plan is a document for school that informs them what agencies are involved with the young person so the school have contact details. It also informs them of strategies that have worked in our classrooms and all other relevant education information.
Some young people who come to us are NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) we then engage with them to find out how we can support them with looking at college courses, apprenticeships, work etc in their local area.
We plan transition with the home school during Care Plan Approach (CPA) review meetings, which are multi-agency. A meeting at the home school is arranged to plan the young persons return to make it as successful as possible.
Other strategies and support for example,a time out card, regular meetings, traffic light bands, and/or time with a mentor are also discussed and built into a transition plan before the young person returns to their home school.
Visits to school then start, opportunities are built in so that the young person can meet up with friends, together with key teaching and pastoral staff; this then builds up in a graduated plan with the young person attending lessons at their home school either from the ward or from home leave.
Some young people and parents may want to change the school or college they attend for a variety of reasons so with support from the home school/college we can start the process.
The time needed for transition work is individual to each young person, some want to get back into school/college as quickly as possible with minimal support, while for others they may be starting a new school/college or have been away from their home school for a long period of time and will need longer to transition.
Young people come to Ancora house from a wide geographical area covering Wirral, Liverpool, Macclesfield, Southport, Lancashire as well as Cheshire.
At Ancora House School and Community Site, we not only support transition to schools and colleges within Cheshire and Wirral Partnership, we also have strong links with other supporting organisations and charities, all of which help us to support, enrich and aide the continued recovery of the students that we work with.
Across CWP we work with Local authority organisations such as The Young People’s Service and Career Connect and, where appropriate, closely linking in with the SEN teams within local authorities.
We also have very strong links with local voluntary/charitable organisations within our communities. We are very appreciative of the support and opportunities they are able to offer to our students. We have worked very closely with the following organisations over recent years. Many of our students have had the opportunity to take part in volunteering, accredited courses and sessions that widen their school curriculum.
https://www.storyhouse.com/young-storyhouse
https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/help-for-young-people/unlock-your-potential/explore-your-potential
