About Us
The Bridge Short Stay School is a Pupil Referral Unit providing education for students from within Cheshire West and Chester who have been permanently excluded from school, are at risk of exclusion or for a variety of reasons have found themselves without a school place.
We are based in Ellesmere Port, but provide for students from throughout the Local Authority. We're excited to currently be working with the Council to develop plans for a new build school that will enable us to improve our provision further.
We believe in the potential of all of our young people, offering a high quality education and personal support to enable all students to achieve positive next steps. In many cases this is a successful return to mainstream education, in others it will be achievement at GCSE level and support to make a positive transition into Post 16 education, employment and training.
Staff model and encourage students to develop in our core values: Resilience, Community, Self-Confidence, Aspirational and Positive; we believe that developing young people who epitomise these values sets them up to achieve in whatever their chosen field.
School Vision
The school vision for 2027 is available to download as a PDF from this page. Developed in consultation with staff, students, parents and the management committee this details our comittment to ongoing improvement and our long term priority areas to ensure we provide the best possible provision over the course of 5 years.
OFSTED
Our Ofsted Report can be found here
At The Bridge we want to offer a high quality education provision. The Parent View Link here offers you the opportunity to tell us about your experience with our school. We value your opinions because they help us to continually improve. In addition, we regularly seek feedback from parents and welcome discussion with all of our families to ensure that we continue to meet your needs.
Admission Statement
There are 40 places comissioned for students by the Local Authority, although registered from Key Stage 2 our admissions have been exclusively in Key Stages 3 & 4 for a number of years. Despite being comissioned for 40 places, rates of permenent exclusion across the Local Authority have meant that we regularly exceed these numbers on roll, typically operating with between 55 & 60 students at any given time, including those on transition plans in or out of the school. Although we have extended capacity to accomodate these numbers there continues to be a significant waiting list for places. Due to these numbers, all places are currently reserved for students who are pemanently excluded or who the Local Authority deem to come under the category of "other" and for whom the LA has a statutory duty to provide education. Students are currently admitted as and when other students leave the school, with allocation of places determined in discussion with officers from the Local Authority in line with our capacity and their prioritisation of the students who are on the waiting list.
All students are admitted through the Local Authority, we are unable to accept direct referrals or applications. If your child is at risk of exclusion you can seek advice through following this link: Permanent exclusion from school - Information for Parents and Carers | Live Well Cheshire West (cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk)
Hours of Opening
All students are expected in school from 8.55am - 3.10pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. 8.55am - 2.15pm Wednesday
Time in school: 30hours 20minutes
