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About Us
Our Story
September 2020 saw the official opening of Learn with Confidence with a team of qualified education practitioners providing excellent teaching in their subject specialisms, and is home to a small number of learners who attend between 1 and 12 hours a week to support them with their education journey.
Learn with Confidence is a not-for-profit organisation, focusing on the education and well-being of those who attend, both young people, their families and everyone who works with us.
Learn with Confidence was established by Kat Perry, a Head of Department and qualified teacher since 2003.
Learn with Confidence aims to empower learners and their families and offer them a choice in their educational path, the route decided by the interests and the needs of the learner.
Learn with Confidence moved in September 2022 to exciting new premises, and now is able to offer a wider range of support to young people.
Accessing Education
Learn with Confidence was established by Kat Perry, along with a small team of like-minded qualified and experienced educators, to offer learning opportunities to those who found mainstream education too challenging to manage. It was important for the team that every learner had the right to access education in a way that worked for them with outcomes that were fit to promote growth and independence, and to enable learners to move onto college, further education or employment when the time came.
Our Centre for Learning
Learn with Confidence is a collaborative approach placing the learner at the centre of it’s ethos and supports a wide range of young people with additional needs and challenges, many with neurodiversity and mental health challenges. We are a neuro-affirming organisation and support learners to be themselves, adapting our strategies to meet the needs of our learners. Our 1:1 sessions allow staff to establish positive relationships and be creative in delivering a curriculum to individuals. Our small and friendly centre means that learners have the chance to thrive in a safe and secure environment, and in a community of learners who recognise themselves in each other.
Learners learn in pods with their 1:1 teacher, with other sessions taking place around them. This means that learners are sharing spaces with their peers whilst learning individually, but are not isolated from each other. There are always adults around to support, and encourage communication between peers, and our timetable allows for interaction if wanted at session changeover times. Our reception area promotes inclusion with games, quizzes and challenges set up for learners (and parents) to engage with, and also offers smaller enclosed spaces for those that find communal spaces challenging. Parents are welcome to stay for their children, should this be a need.
In 2023, Learn with Confidence moved to larger premises to the north of Horsham town centre. We are a 15 minute walk from Horsham town centre and 5 minutes from Horsham train station.
Recognition
In 2022, Learn with Confidence became an official Alternative Provision with West Sussex County Council, and supports the needs of a wide range of young people with EHCPs to have access to learning and qualifications. We also work with our local schools supporting learners who need a different pathway or approach to their learning.
We are currently in the process of becoming an official MAP with East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove to enable more learners to access our provision.
Additional Support
Learn with Confidence offers wellbeing support alongside academic learning with access to Emotional Literacy Support through our qualified ELSA team. mentoring, and a range of therapeutic sessions such as Lego-based play therapy, Drawing and Talking Therapy, Art Therapy (both holistic and clinical) and Animal Assisted Intervention through The Granary, our smallholding in Cowfold.
We also offer support to families through parent social evenings, and host games clubs for learners twice weekly to offer social opportunities
Our Aims and Commitments
In line with our ethos of facilitating meaningful, positive experiences of education in an alternative setting, we pledge:
To provide a tailored, student-centred educational experience that honours the unique needs, abilities, and backgrounds of our learners. Our approach recognises that no two students are the same, and we commit to creating bespoke learning approaches designed to foster growth, confidence and any other goals set in close collaboration with students and their families.
To help all our students to overcome obstacles, encouraging and nurturing them to aspirational thinking and helping them to recognise and unlock their full potential. Whatever brings our students to us, we believe that education should, and can, empower every kind of student; we pledge to listen carefully to each student’s story, to value their strengths and challenges, and to help them meet their goals.
To respond to the specific additional needs of our students, and through practising informed empathy, work to create meaningful and positive educational experiences. While we cannot promise to have the experience and expertise that is the right fit for every student profile, we do have considerable breadth and depth of experience across our teaching staff to draw on and we endeavour to offer the best help wherever we can. To adapt our methods and level of demand to meet their context, learning style, need and their pace.
We are committed to forging respectful, collaborative relationships with the families of our students, built on transparency and compassion.
Working in close collaboration with students and their families is a vital vector in our students’ growth and success. To this end, we promise to foster open communication with students and their families and commit to creating a safe, supportive and nurturing environment where students - and their families - feel comfortable and supported in expressing themselves and taking risks.