Centre Academy Schools

A leading educator has called the Centre Academy Schools (London and East Anglia) “the most successful special needs schools in the UK and, indeed, the most unique.” Here’s why: We accept a broad range of ages, boys and girls, from 7-19 (9-19 in London). This eliminates the anxiety, common to SEN students, of having to move from school to school to school. Research has repeatedly shown that for an SEN student, moving school is a tremendously daunting experience. We address an equally broad range of learning challenges on a case-by-case basis: ASD, AD/HD, Dyslexia, Speech and Language needs, Anxiety to name but a few. Such breadth and versatility is essential, as most SEN students face more than one learning challenge—and Anxiety is common to almost all. We group not by age or by year group but rather by ability and level of preparedness. Research repeatedly shows that SEN students accomplish best when they work with peers who are working at approximately the same level. We keep our schools small, approximately 50 at London and 60 at East Anglia. This ensures that our class sizes are small (usually between 4-8 students) and that learning will be individualised. At the CA schools, one size does not fit all. All our teachers are highly experienced and all have significant expertise in teaching SEN students. We do not increase our student to staff ratio through use of learning support assistants. When our children leave Centre Academy, they do so with Outcomes: they have earned appropriate qualifications and they know exactly where they are going: to college, to apprenticeships, to university. We follow the National Curriculum through GCSE or Foundation Learning for more vocationally orientated students. We are the only schools in the UK, including mainstream schools, to offer the American High School Diploma. Recognised by all UK universities, the Diploma is not examination-based but instead uses a system of continual assessment.