We are proud to be Ofsted Outstanding 2019 *** TES 2020 Winners of Alternative Provision school of the year ***
Stone Soup Academy will provide places for students who are outside of mainstream education. Students are referred by schools and local education authorities from across the East Midlands.
We only accept referrals through schools.
Parents cannot ‘choose’ Stone Soup Academy as an option for secondary education in the first instance as we are set up to deal with learners at risk of exclusion.
For more information, please view our Admissions Policy.
Whilst we do not have open days, potential students are invited via their referrer to visit the Academy for a tour of the site with their parent/carer.
At the Stone Soup Academy we focus on supporting students with SEND through a range of support, interventions and differentiation.
Stephen Thompson- Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator
Email Address: sthompson@stonesoupacademy.org.uk
Stone Soup Academy focuses on engagement with education and reintegration with schools. The average time a student is with us is 28 weeks, and the courses offered to students reflect that. With this in mind, we offer GCSEs and GCSE equivalents in-line with the time a student will be with us, their starting point and alignment with the referring school’s needs.
Percentage of pupils who achieved a 4-9 or above in English and Maths GCSE
Percentage of pupils who achieved a GCSE (or equivalent) at any grade
Percentage of pupils who achieved a pass in any qualification
Percentage of students staying in education or employment offer key stage 4 (destinations)
Percentage of students who achieved a GCSE in English and Maths
Please find information relating to our curriculum.
Please click here to read our Curriculum Statement
Click here to read our Curriculum Policy.
At the Stone Soup Academy we focus on supporting students with SEND through a range of support, interventions and differentiation.
The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers.
Stone Soup Academy only receives funding for students who are on single roll with us; referring schools use their Pupil Premium Funding to send students to our academy and as such the funding is used to provide personalised education for the students in that way. We do not receive this PPF directly and assume that it makes up part of the commissioning fees to the Stone Soup Academy.
The PPF that we do receive directly, along with the commissioning fees, are used to personalise learning through incentives, specialist tutors, college days and other similar items. This has helped students improve their attainment and ensure that disadvantaged students do not experience barriers to their learning and development. We have also invested this into establishing a healthy eating programme at the school, ensuring the students have access to and knowledge about better nutrition.
LMI for All is an online data portal, developed by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, which brings together existing national sources of high quality labour market information (LMI) helping to inform people’s choices about their careers. In the boxes below you can select a career and find out the average earnings for that profession. You can also read about projected workforce changes, is your career aspiration in a growing or decreasing sector?
Careerometer:
Our careers and employability programme gives students opportunities to develop transferable skills, ensuring that they are fully supported to make informed choices about the next stage in their education, employment or training and also making use of expertise from other organisations such as Futures.
Our aim for all of our young people is that they go on to lead happy, successful and fulfilling careers in the future. Pupils receive advice and guidance to help inspire them towards further study and enable them to make informed decisions whenever choices are open to them. We are committed to ensuring our provision of careers and employability education meets the requirements of the Gatsby Benchmarks.
The school has performed very well against national standards when mapped against the Gatsby Benchmarks using the Career and Enterprise Company’s COMPASS tool.
|
Benchmark |
% of the assessment areas in Benchmark achieved (December 2022) |
% of the assessment areas in Benchmark achieved (July 2023) |
% of schools nationally meeting this Benchmark (2021) |
|
1: A stable careers programme |
82% |
100% |
43% |
|
2: Learning from career & labour market information |
100% |
100% |
66% |
|
3: Addressing the needs of each student |
100% |
100% |
38% |
|
4: Linking curriculum learning to careers |
92% |
100% |
60% |
|
5: Encounters with employers and employees |
100% |
100% |
56% |
|
6: Encounters of workplace |
50% |
75 |
36% |
|
7: Encounters with further & higher education |
80% |
90 |
33% |
|
8: Personal Guidance |
100% |
100% |
65% |
100% of students receive advice and guidance interviews from Jordan who has a Level 7 Diploma in Careers Guidance and Development.
100% of students last year received conditional offers from their desired destination.
Year 10
Visits to local Universities/Colleges (Nottingham Trent) and making use of our extensive connections to bring professionals into the Academy.
Taster Days and College Visits
Work experience opportunities
Year 11
Taster Days and College Visits
Visits to local Universities/Colleges (Nottingham Trent) and making use of our extensive connections to bring professionals into the Academy.
One on One advice and guidance meetings
External providers week
Addressing the needs of pupils
Stone Soup Academies careers programme will aim to raise the aspirations of all learners whilst being tailored to individual needs. The programme will inform learners of the range of opportunities available to them, encouraging them to aim higher and make choices relevant to what they feel they can achieve. All forms of stereotyping will be prohibited in the careers advice and guidance that is provided, to ensure learners from all backgrounds, gender and diversity groups, and those with SEND, can consider the widest possible range of careers. Destination data will be retained by the school for at least three years.
|
Destination Data 2020-2023 |
|
||||
|
Destination |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
College/FE |
33 |
36 |
29 |
20 | 28 |
|
Apprenticeship |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 | 0 |
|
Employment |
2 |
1 |
2 |
6 | 2 |
|
NEET |
0 |
2 |
3 |
7 | 2 |
Our destination data shows a consistent low number of learners who become NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training).
We work closely with Futures to target those learners we feel are most at risk of becoming NEET.
Our Careers information can be accessed through our Careers Leader Jordan Senior and Jordan can be contacted via email: jsenior@stonesoupacademy.org.uk or via telephone on
0115 8221834.
We review the careers programme annually.
Click to view our careers policy SSA Careers policy .docx
Feedback from Companies regarding our students
Diversity and Community Magistrates – “Firstly, a very big “thank you” to both you and your wonderful team for making us so welcome today. You are doing such an amazing job and changing lives for so many of these vulnerable youngsters who would otherwise slip through the net and risk falling into the Criminal Justice System.”
The Welbeck Primary School – It was so lovely to host (A) , I didn’t get a chance to catch her before she left. I heard lots of good things about her manner with the children and how helpful she was in class. We were really happy to support this placement and her journey to a world of work.”
Governors: Kerrie Henton (Ex-Officio), Barnaby Mulholland (Safeguarding governor), Toni Le Gallez (parent governor), Richard Elston (Co-opted), Claire Knee (Co-opted), Rueben Williams (Member Governor), Nigel Best (LA Appointed trustee).
Please refer to the Governance page for further details regarding the governing body.
If you require any copies of the information above, please contact the school directly and these will be provided free of charge. Any enquiries should be addressed to the Principal, Kerrie Henton.
Please see Our Mission in conjunction with the Equal Opportunities for Students Policy.
We do not require payment from parents/carers for any aspect of the services we provide. Lunch, trips and activities are all provided at no cost to parents.
Weduc is the main communication tool used by the academy to keep parents informed, engaged and up-to-date with their child’s progress.
It gives you access to information such as key dates and events.
As a smart digital communications tool, Weduc can be accessed as a mobile app or parents can simply login to a web platform. All parents and carers receive an enrolment letter containing details of how to register and access the Weduc app. You will be given a unique and secure login for your account.
For parents who have already registered for Weduc and prefer to use the web platform, please visit: https://app.weduc.co.uk
To ensure you are able to access the relevant information for your children, it is vital that you supply us with an accurate e-mail address or telephone number. Parents/carers who do not have access to a computer or internet will continue to receive communications, such as letters, in hard-copy.
If you have any problems with the app, or need to provide us with your details, please contact our main reception on 0115 822 1834.
Are you worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with you online?
Get help and advice about a wide range of issues, call us on 0800 1111, talk to a counsellor online, send Childline an email or post on the message boards.
I am 16 years old and I was excluded from school when I was 13 because I found it difficult to behave in school. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to me and that made me feel nervous. I arrived at Stone Soup Academy and I haven’t looked back. My attendance is now 100% and I am doing really well. I study media, construction, multi skills and sport alongside GCSE’s in English and Maths and I’ve already achieved 2 qualifications in level 2 Media and level 1 hairdressing. Stone Soup has really had a positive impact on me by changing my behaviour, the staff try to help me in as many ways possible. They are polite and it is very different to mainstream. I never wanted to go to my mainstream school and now I look forward to coming to Stone soup and I come all the time. We always shake hands when we arrive and leave.
The teachers always discuss the future and what I can do which really helps.
We earn money for our behaviour and attendance which is just like the real world.
I have really enjoyed my time at Stone Soup and to be honest I will miss it when I leave but without Stone Soup I wouldn’t have become the person that I am today, a person with a bright future.
By the age of 14 I was already a failure. At least in the eyes of the education system. In mainstream school you are stuck in classes of up to 30 people and only one teacher. So when you want help you have to wait for the teacher to come round. This would take ages and so you would just give up waiting. They were some examples of the problems facing students in mainstream students into today’s world.
I attended a mainstream school in Nottingham, in my opinion the biggest issues were, there wasn’t enough staff to be able to support all the students in the school. As well as having packed corridors in between lessons made it very tight. This made the school feel like a very stressed environment for both staff and students. Also the school days are very long and you have to 5-6 lessons a day witch are about an hour long and still get given homework, this leaves no down time for students.
However ever since i have joined Stone Soup Academy school life has become a lot more easier, for example its first name terms with all teachers and instead of just walking around a cold field at mainstream you play FIFA and pool at break and lunch which can improve friendships and make it a better learning environment for both staff and students. Also class sizes are 10 times smaller than mainstream with no more than 10 students in a class. This means that students get help a lot quicker an therefor learn more in a shorter amount of time.
If I had to compare the two types of education the main differences would be that Stone Soup has a lot more relaxed feel to it than mainstream which results in people both staff and students feeling more able to concentrate on what they need to do. This is why at Stone Soup you can get work done a lot quicker and still feel like you’ve learnt something.
To conclude I think that if every mainstream changed the way they managed situations it would feel more relaxed and therefore student results would increase hugely. The problem is education is always getting budget cuts and are still expected to give students more support.
