About Us
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Alternative Pathways is an exciting new trauma informed part-time alternative learning provision, created and led by two experienced senior school leaders with a track record of achieving success for children and young people that have struggled to successfully access mainstream education.
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For the last five years we have led Bristol’s most successful alternative learning provision, becoming the first in the city to achieve a GOOD Ofsted rating and implementing a truly innovative curriculum that met the needs of young people and led to zero exclusions over an 18 month period.
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Alternative Pathways is born out of our desire to take this to the next level. We recognise that mainstream education does not, and cannot, meet the needs of every child and young person and our mission is to offer a truly personalised education offer that is relevant and appropriate for every individual that we work with.
This approach is based on trauma informed principles that are embedded in the very ethos of Alternative Pathways and form the basis of what we do:
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We work hard to form trusting relationships with every child or young person that we work with, developing healthy attachments that allow for open dialogue and the establishment of agreed ways of working and safe spaces where this will take place.
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We encourage every child and young person in our care to take risks in their learning, knowing they have the safety of trusted adults supporting them. We are ambitious and use this ambition to empower individuals to take control of their learning in ways they did not think possible.
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Collaboration is crucial to what we do. Behind every child and young person is a community, whether that be family, school, friends or other professionals, and we seek to listen to and learn from each of these in order to best support those we work with.
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Many of the children and young people that we work with have a complex life story to tell and we respect these and explore them together to make meaning of them, recognising their impact and fostering mutual respect as we learn together to achieve the most positive of outcomes.
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We offer a wide range of education and engagement support packages in association with our partners at Exar-Wellbeing. These include 1:1 tutoring, therapeutic mentoring and enriched community learning. All packages are tailored to the individual child or young person and can be agreed at the point of referral.
Our provision is unique in that we combine leaders with extensive experience in the education and youth work sectors with BACP qualified therapists, which ensures we take a truly holistic approach to our work and mean that no stone is left unturned as we seek to create positive outcomes and genuine, generational change for children and young people.