Success Stories
At The Bridge we are extremely proud of the progress made academically; socially and vocationally by the vast majority of our students. Below are brief stories highlighting the successes of a small number of our former students (student names have been changed).
Sophie
Sophie was permanently excluded in March of Year 8 for persistent disruptive behaviour and a physical assault. On induction at The Bridge it became apparent that she had struggled with the transition to secondary school in September 2020 with limited transitional support and a disrupted Year 7 due to Covid. Although she'd had little SEN support in her prior school, baseline assessments showed difficulties in her cognition as well as significant gaps in learning.
Sophie was placed in our P1 pathway to ensure she received the nurture that had been disrupted through her secondary transition and the opportunity for us to further identify levels of SEN. As a result of her time with us, Sophie was diagnosed with both ADHD and Autism and we successfully applied for an EHCP.
Although she was making good progress at The Bridge, academically and in terms of her social development, it was apparent we weren't the best placed school to meet her needs long term with her EHCP reccomending a special school setting. A big part of our role therefore turned to advocacy for the family who were struggling to get a permanent placement for her. As a result of this she transferred during Year 10 to a local Special School where she is currently thriving.
Chris
Chris was permanently excluded during Year 10 for a drug related incident. Prior to this incident he had largely been doing well at school, but had been on the peripherary of some similar incidents before his exclusion. From the start of his time with us however he demonstrated a comittment to being able to return to mainstream education and be successful.
In order to support Chris' aspirations we prioritised maintaining a largely academic curriculum so that he would be able to return to a range of GCSEs at a new school, this was supplemented by a key focus on PSHE and drugs education so that he was better prepared to keep himself safe and away from issues that could cause difficulties within school.
Although some schools can be reluctant to admit permanently excluded students within KS4 a place in a local mainstream school was negotiated and secured for Chris through the fair access panel to transition at the start of Year 11. During his final year Chris put into practice the skills he'd developed at The Bridge to maintain attendance above 90% with no suspensions, going on to achieve 8 GCSEs, including English & Maths at grades 4/5.
Pete
Pete was permanently excluded in Year 10 following a fight in school. By the time of his permanent exclusion he had almost completely disengaged with education, he'd received numerous suspensions and school attendance had declined to 18%. Pete's wider family circumstances were difficult, Dad as the sole carer and was out of work and his brother was also at risk of exclusion from school.
We initiated a TAF for Pete's family to be able to work with them collectively and support the whole family, which led to supporting Dad to access benefits he was entitled to and ease the pressure on the family. As Pete got to know staff within school he began to form more trusting relationships, his focus was very clearly on being able to work and earn after he finished school in order to improve his family circumstances, staff within school began to show him how engaging in and accessing education could support this.
We were able to source Pete a work placement one day a week during Year 11 to imrpove his employability skills and give him something positive on his CV. His attendance at school slowly improved from that starting point of 18% to over 60% in his final term at The Bridge. Assessments on induction showed that he was working well below GCSE level with really significant gaps in learning, adaptive teaching to meet his needs ensured that he was able to sit and achieve GCSEs in English and Maths at the end of Year 11 and he has been able to maintain continuous employment since completing his exams.
