Headteacher's Communication

Headteacher’s Communication 2022/23.

Dear parents, carers and prospective schools,

First and foremost, I’d like to thank you for your interest in FreshSteps Independent School.

Established in 2009, we are very proud to celebrate our twelfth year anniversary this year as a school and provider for children/pupils with SEMH. I am proud of our team of staff who consistently work hard to ensure that your children have the very best possible outcomes from their education and school life here at Freshsteps

FreshSteps remained as an outstanding school in our most recent Ofsted Inspection in March 2021 and continues to be a thriving and dynamic independent school that specifically caters to pupils with varying and additional needs. We offer an adapted curriculum suited to the needs of our pupils but that provides many of the same rich and broad range of subjects that they would receive in mainstream school; as well as other subjects not readily available in mainstream education. The school is aimed at providing an education for young people aged 5 – 19 years who have been or are at risk of permanent exclusion, are school refusers, or those who find it difficult to cope within a mainstream classroom due to additional or underlying learning needs.

We work closely with the special education needs services in Enfield and have recently expanded our catchment area to work with neighbouring boroughs such as Haringey, Barnet, Essex and Hertfordshire. Though many of our pupils come to us on a long term basis, we do understand that some pupils simply require additional support before being reintegrated back into mainstream school and where possible, we aim to do this for our pupils who make exceptional progress.

FreshSteps state of the art provision can provide a much more hands on and therapeutic environment for our pupils. We have invested in brand new classrooms and a brand new IT and technology suite, a sports arena, gym, indoor therapeutic soft-play build and now offer an inclusion centre for pupils on short or fixed term exclusions at FreshSteps or within the local borough, meaning that pupils no longer have to be at home following exclusion from school

At FreshSteps , pupils will discover a supportive and friendly environment. High standards of discipline and behaviour are expected and maintained thus ensuring a safe working environment where every individual is encouraged to strive for excellence.

FreshSteps offers personalised learning environments, with classes of up to six pupils in our primary phase and 8 pupils in secondary. We aim to remove the barriers to learning experienced by young people so that they can feel safe, confident and happy to attend school daily. The ethos is to encourage an atmosphere of tolerance and respect and to create an environment that is conducive to learning and free from unacceptable risk.

Our pupils study a range of subjects however we do place emphasis on core Literacy and Numeracy skills across the entire school. Our curriculum this year has broadened to include Geography, History and cookery lessons

We are also preparing to open our Sixth Form site in February 2022 which will include the following BTEC Level 1 and 2 courses; Beauty, Hairdressing, Nail Technology, Barbering, Engineering, Mechanics, Food Technology, Media, Video Editing, Music, Graphic Design, and we may introduce Construction.

We appoint outstanding staff who bring vision, enthusiasm, energy and high standards to the school. Our staff are experts in their fields and passionate about improving the lives of young people. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused tremendous challenges over the past year but our team have worked as hard as possible and remained positive throughout.

COVID-19 – All staff here at FreshSteps complete twice weekly testing as well as our Secondary pupil’s since the new Omicron Variant. As well as our sophisticated air-ventilation system within the school, we have also invested in anti-viral disinfectant fumigators and air purifiers to keep all our pupils and staff safe. 

We look forward to welcoming you to FreshSteps.

Diane Anderson

Head Teacher