Acorn Alternative Provision

At Acorn Alternative Provision, we work with young people aged 11-16 who are not attending, not engaging in, or are at risk of exclusion from mainstream education. This could be for a variety of reasons, including:

• social, emotional or learning needs that are not being fully met at school;
• mental health difficulties;
• school refusal or phobia.

We work on a national level within local settings through church partners.

"There were 787,000 suspensions and 9,400 permanent exclusions in the 2022/23 academic year - the highest recorded annual numbers."

UK Government Statistics (2024)

Inspired by Isaiah 61, our mission and calling is to rebuild foundations and restore hope to the thousands of children in the UK who are facing crisis and falling through the gaps in the education system.

Our vision is for every young person to achieve a secure identity and a positive future - academically and economically, as well as socially, emotionally, mentally, relationally and spiritually.

At Acorn Alternative Provision, we are drawing alongside this growing group of children who are struggling to engage with or who are being excluded from mainstream education.

Every day, we meet young people and families who are trapped in cycles of despair, whose experiences in education have created patterns of negative thinking, low self-worth and low confidence. Often, these children and their parents have found themselves without support, feeling marginalised and rejected.

Our foundational Christian values of love, grace, compassion, forgiveness and hope underpin our holistic approach and are woven through everything we do.

Acorn Alternative Provision began in April 2023 and currently runs four alternative education centres across the country. Since opening, we have worked with over 100 young people and have seen many of them return successfully to their mainstream schools after a placement with us.

• Our learning environments are small and have a family feel.
• We use a trauma-informed, therapeutic approach, seeking to understand and address the underlying factors that have led to disengagement with education.

• We work closely with referring schools, parents/carers and other stakeholders.
• Our curriculum is carefully planned to address the needs, gaps and barriers our young people come with.
• We offer qualifications that provide stepping stones towards future learning, apprenticeships and traineeships.
• Our staff and volunteers model and demonstrate our foundational Christian values of love, grace, compassion, forgiveness and hope.
• We partner with churches to maximise opportunities for our young people and their families to connect into positive local networks, providing practical and pastoral support beyond the school-day.

During the school day, volunteers from local churches support and build relationships with our young people, alongside our teaching staff. Beyond the classroom, our partner churches provide effective, wrap-around and truly holistic support to families in many ways, including signposting to local services, befriending, advocating for parents, and providing practical help where there is need.

Since our start, we have been approached by several churches keen to explore partnership with us, all recognising a growing disengagement in mainstream education in their locality and sensing a call to meet this need through Christian alternative provision.

Where God leads us, we are keen to grow the Acorn network further by opening new Centres.