Dear Parent/Carer,
I hope you are all well. I am writing to introduce myself but more importantly to give you some information about the launch of Black Country Alternative Provision.
As of this week, what was formerly Lawnswood Campus is now Black Country Alternative Provision and is comprised of two academies, The Kairos Academy (Alternative Provision, formerly Braybrook and Midpoint) and The Vireo Academy (SEMH Alternative Provision and Hospital School, formerly Orchard and Nightingale).
Black Country Alternative Provision is now a member of Youth Engagement Schools Trust (YES Trust) and we are thrilled to have expanded our rapidly growing organisation into the West Midlands; “BCAP” becomes the eighth establishment in our trust alongside The Axis Academy (Crewe), The Cornerstone Academy (Crewe and Sandbach), The Engage Academy (Cheshire East, not yet opened), The Fermain Academy (Macclesfield), The Keystone Academy (Shrewsbury), The Link Academy (Stoke-on-Trent, not yet opened) and The Raise Academy (Widnes).
We have been working with the schools on campus behind the scenes for some time now and are genuinely excited to bring the core values and high levels of performance we are renowned for nationally both to the new academies themselves and the wider community that they serve. We work uniquely in Alternative Provision and specialist settings and look forward to sharing our experience with a highly committed set of staff. We will continue to work collaboratively with Wolverhampton Local Authority and our close relationship with it is important to us.
We will now quickly get down to work ensuring that Black Country Alternative Provision becomes a place that truly transforms the lives of its students; as you may already know, we do this in our settings by being child-centred, growing authentic relationships and being adaptive and sensitive to need. For more information on our trust if you are interested, see: https://linktr.ee/theyestrust
Over the coming weeks, changes that you will see are likely to be very subtle as we will be formally launching the Black Country Alternative Provision roadmap in the Spring Term. In the longer term, we have ambitious plans for the transformation of the site and developing world-changing education at both The Kairos Academy and The Vireo Academy. In addition to the existing leaders you already know well in both academies, I will be leading the campus for the remainder of the academic year on behalf of our trust to drive momentum of the “BCAP” launch. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or want to get in touch at a.wakefield@theyestrust.org
Finally, I would like to inform you in advance of one calendar amendment; due to an additional INSET Day which has been agreed on Tuesday January 7th, the Spring Term will now begin on Wednesday 8th January for all students.
Yours faithfully,
Andy Wakefield
Assistant Director of Education, Youth Engagement Schools Trust.