New Wigan school opens with both academic and therapeutic education
A new school has opened its doors in Wigan to support children struggling in mainstream education.
My Oasis therapeutic alternative provision is based in what used to be office space on Heaton Street in Standish.
It provides education for up to 20 pupils, aged between 11 to 16, with some attending full-time and others on a part-time basis alongside lessons in mainstream schools.
Acting headteacher Charlotte Lowe, who has spent 25 years working in schools and offering psychological services, said: “Initially I set this up to try to reduce the need for alternative provisions. I was finding there were a lot of young people struggling in mainstream, so I wanted to set up a school which was aimed at helping people cope better in mainstream, with the aim of reintegrating them, but also supporting staff.
“But what I have found over the last year is that there are more and more children being referred who might never go back to the mainstream environment, so I have decided to open as a school.”
Pupils are referred to My Oasis by schools or the local authority.
Many of them do not meet the criteria for specialist SEND schools or pupil referral units, but still need extra support, such as those displaying emotionally-based school avoidance.
And My Oasis has more than the academic lessons offered at other schools, with lots of support for pupils’ mental health too.
Miss Lowe, who lives in Standish, said: “Our aim is to get them their GCSEs. But we are different to other schools because we have CAMHS [child and adolescent mental health service] professionals and CAMHS staff on the team.
"We offer a therapeutic curriculum as well as the academic curriculum and try to interweave it through the academic curriculum. We will do things like mindfulness exercises in English or maths.
"We also offer the therapy side where all students will have access to skills-based groups around social skills and communication skills, and all children have access to psychotherapy. We offer all the therapies that CAMHS offer and we have mental health professionals, like speech and language specialists and a psychiatrist who can do autism or ADHD assessments.”
Every pupil has a mentor and a personalised timetable, to ensure the sessions they are attending are right for them.
For those attending My Oasis part-time, alongside a mainstream school, staff will speak to their other teachers about the curriculum to make sure they are learning the same things.
The school also offers ASDAN courses, which can be more flexible and practical than other qualifications.
Miss Lowe said: “We find constantly that some children have had up to a three-year gap in their education and it is very hard to work towards their English and maths GCSEs. We looked at setting up these ASDAN courses because we can do accelerated English or accelerated maths, which is like half a GCSE and it’s more practical-based learning, with a portfolio of evidence rather than being assessment-based.”
Ofsted has already carried out a pre-registration assessment of My Oasis, which found it was “likely” to meet all the independent school standards.