The Skills Hub (TSH) is a co-educational Alternative Provision (AP) that caters for students in the London Borough of Hillingdon who cannot attend mainstream school for a variety of reasons, predominantly permanent exclusion. Due to the nature of the provision and the range of students’ needs, its cohort is transient; students join and leave at different points throughout the school year.
The Skills Hub works with many different groups of pupils over a wide age range including:
- Pupils that have been fixed term or permanently excluded from school
- Pupils that are at risk of permanent exclusion
- Pupils with an identifiable special need which does not require a statement of Special Educational Need e.g. young mums, pupils that are unable to attend school for medical reasons
- Pupils requiring education other than at school e.g. disaffected pupils
- Pupils who require additional support in school
- Students that have moved in Hillingdon and are without an immediate school place
The Skills Hub was inspected by Ofsted in Spring 2018 and received a judgement as ‘Good’: “Since 2016 TSH has been part of the Orchard Hill College Academy Trust. An outstanding college for primarily adult learners who have a range of complex needs and disabilities.” Ofsted Report, June 2018.
Our curriculum is designed to deliver the central vision for our students – Excellence through Compassion.
The Skills Hub aims to be a safe, compassionate and inclusive learning community that recognises the uniqueness of its learners and celebrates their success. We are dedicated to helping our young people develop the knowledge and skills that reflects the best of their abilities, that will enable them to sustain healthy relationships, become gainfully employed and lead enriched lives.
We believe with the right support we can help our students to make successful transitions at each point in their school career, whether it be back to mainstream schooling, from KS3 to KS4 or their transition to further education, training or employment post 16. These skills should then be transferable to make them successful adults in the wider world.
We vigorously challenge bullying, racism, homophobia and discrimination of any kind. Much is done through assemblies, staff training and school events. We provide a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum for our students.
As part of our commitment to engage and develop the soft skills that are required for future success, we are delivering both The Prince’s Trust and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Schemes. Intervention programmes are part of the curriculum offer in order actively promotes to support and develop language and life skills.
