Working together for the benefit of looked after children – Helen Clapham, External Relations, GSAL, and Jancis Andrew, Head of the Virtual School for Children Looked After and Care Leavers, Leeds.
Leeds City Council and The Grammar School at Leeds – Working together for the benefit of looked after children and young people, to make Leeds the best city in the UK
The city of Leeds has the ambition to be the best city in the UK and this includes being a great place for children and young people to grow up in. Whilst Leeds is a wonderful city for many people, for others such as looked after children and young people there is an opportunity to improve their experience and their life chances.
The city recognises that each child is different as are their needs and ambitions. The Virtual School is responsible for overseeing the educational outcomes of almost two thousand looked after children and care leavers; ensuring that each child has the opportunity to achieve their potential. This is particularly important as the education outcomes of young people who have experienced care are amongst the lowest in our society. The scale and complexity of the challenge is significant, so the Virtual School has been working with organisations across the city including The Grammar School at Leeds to improve the experiences and the educational outcomes of looked after children and young people.
This session will describe how Leeds City Council and The Grammar School at Leeds have been working together on a range of projects to improve the experience of looked after children and young people, and how this approach can be adopted in other places.
Jancis Andrew is the Head of the Virtual School for Children Looked After and Care Leavers and is responsible for ensuring that the educational achievement of children in care and care leavers is a priority for everyone responsible for their welfare and to challenge all Corporate Parents to ask themselves, “would this be good enough for my child?”
Helen Clapham, is the Director of External Relations at The Grammar School at Leeds and is responsible for working with organisations across the city to ensure that the school is playing its part in making Leeds the best city in the UK.
Teaching and Learning Leeds 