Where a pupil is permanently excluded, they are placed on the roll of Horizons Academy as single roll. Where a pupil is accessing a time limited placement, long term placement or has not been permanently excluded (including Medical Needs), the pupil remains on both their home school and Horizons roll for the duration. Horizons Academy is recorded as subsidiary. Schools may not remove a pupil from their roll as this would constitute an unlawful exclusion in all cases unless the pupil has been permanently excluded and no appeal has been upheld. During the appeal period following an exclusion, the pupil’s remains on the roll of the excluding school for 15 days pending any appeal or hearing.
Pupils with EHCPs cannot have Horizons Academy named as the school within their EHCP. Alternative provision academies and pupil referral units should not be named on any EHCP as long term single roll schools as this is not their purpose and they are not set up to meet the longer term needs of pupils with SEN who require specialist placements.
In the case of a permanent exclusion, it is the responsibility of the excluding school to complete the referral form and risk assessment immediately to ensure that the pupil is in school at Horizons Academy by day 6 following permanent exclusion. The Local Authority will be contacted where schools have failed to provide information in the appropriate timescales to follow up on non-attendance and lack of engagement.
The Referral Panel at Horizons Academy also considers alternatives to placement including outreach support, training for schools and advice / guidance where appropriate. Keeping children in their home school or reintegrating children back to school is the key purpose of the alternative provision academy. Longer term solutions are only offered for pupils in Key Stage 4 (Summer 2 for Year 9 pupils and until the end of December for Year 11 pupils) where continued reintegration is unlikely to be successful, the pupil does not present as needing assessment through the EHCP process and the parent / carer is in agreement with the placement and has provided evidence of this through accepting the terms and conditions of placement.
Horizons Academy provides sixth day short term provision to children and young people who reside in the London Borough of Bexley and have been permanently excluded from mainstream primary and secondary school.
Parents and a representative of the excluding school are invited to attend a preadmission meeting to discuss the needs of the child and education pathway proposed by Horizons Academy during the short term placement. All placements following permanent exclusion are temporary until a new mainstream school place has been secured through the Fair Access Panel protocol.
In all cases where parents refuse sixth day provision, formal notification is made to the local authority Children Missing Education panel. All cases referred to the Children Missing Education Panel are the responsibility of the local authority to support parents in applying through in year admission department or initiating school attendance orders.
Horizons Academy is unable to offer sixth day provision to students beyond the legal procedural timeframe from the date of the permanent exclusion in accordance with the DFE Guidance on Exclusion from Maintained Schools, Academy and Pupil Referral Units in England 2017.
Where a pupil is referred to the academy due to a medical condition, written evidence of support must be supplied by the home school from either CAMHS with whom the pupil must be engaging or from a medical consultant. Written evidence must be current and the pupil’s case must remain open to CAMHS or the pupil to be under medical supervision of a consultant. Young people benefit most from being amongst their peers and studying the full curriculum offered by their home school, therefore it is always the intention to remove young people from their home school for as minimal a time as possible and to support with their re- integration. All medical needs placements are for a duration of 12 weeks.
All pupils are referred to Fair Access Panel following their permanent exclusion and are provided with reintegration support for up to 12 weeks to maximise transition success and help overcome barriers associated with reintegration in the new school.
Where a child or young person moves in to the London Borough of Bexley and has attended a pupil referral unit in the previous local authority, a PRU to PRU transfer can be arranged with parental consent.
Students who are deemed to be ‘looked after’ can access the Reinteration programme or Long Term provision with agreement from the local authority and Head of Virtual School.
All KS3 students must have a local mainstream school place secured as an exit route prior to admission or be on the roll of a mainstream school to enable dual registration in KS4. It is the responsibility of the local authority to identify a name school place to secure an exit route upon completion of the Reintegration programme.
A representative of the LAC team and named school must attend all review meetings as requested to ensure progress to targets and to support any areas of concern.