Why Apricot Lessons Work

We listen to our students

Our teachers continually listen to their students and are constantly adjusting their lesson content and pacing to meet student needs. Student age or year group doesn’t have to dictate lesson content and approach. Our students’ capabilities,interests, levels of engagement, and potential, all contribute to the tailoring of their lessons.

Our approach to personalised online learning means we have been able to deliver impacts that significantly contribute to the latest DfE initiatives on the design and delivery of quality assurance for online education providers.

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Interactive teaching

Once students are in their online classrooms, we engage them – and keep them engaged. Rather than talking at our students, we get our students actively clicking and drawing and writing and so much more. We create our own learning games and simulations. They just love it. It’s fun and interactive. And, with our immediate feedback on their work, students progress at an astounding pace.

Here's a fun video from one our teachers on how we handle student’s questions:

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We teach the whole child

We’re here for the most challenged students – the frightened, the anxious, the wounded, and the hostile. They’re our kids and we’ve got their backs.  Our specialist, trauma informed teachers are all experienced and trained in SEND and Understanding Children and Young People’s Mental Health. Our care and commitment to our students allows them to take the leap of faith required for trusting relationships. Everything we do stems from this starting point.

We do more for the whole child. Beyond academics, we are proactive in raising resilience, confidence, and self-awareness – especially around learning behaviours. We also help our students understand the myriad of attributes they should be celebrating about themselves.

Second chances & responsibility

Apricot has a Fresh Start policy. No matter how a student behaves in the moment or on the day, they know that each moment is new and each day starts afresh. Restorative conversations are held when needed, but our students never have to feel as though they have sabotaged themselves or their relationships with their teachers.

Engaging with a measure of curriculum co-construction, students gain a greater understanding of ‘what,’ ‘when,’ and ‘how’ parts of the curriculum are taught. They experience their own responsibility in the learning process and have a better chance of accomplishing the objectives they have helped to set.

Flexibility

We teach to our student’s capabilities; not to their age. If older students need KS3 catch-up before starting their GCSEs, then our teachers will guide them into their GCSEs gently. Students can move up from KS3 to GCSE or from foundation to higher courses. Likewise, if they are having real difficulty in a subject, they can move into a lower-level course. We run an academically dynamic provision that allows for movement based on students’ needs, abilities,and best outcomes.

We teach our students when they are available and able to learn. Timetables are setup around standing medical and other appointments. Students with ME/CFS can access afternoon lessons and are offered several breaks within lessons.

Safe environment

Many students with high anxiety cannot contemplate even entering a school, let alone travelling on public transport or mingling with a classful of their peers. By allowing them to study in their own safe environment, we remove a major inhibitor to learning. All lessons are recorded for both safeguarding and revision.

Equally,some students might be aggressive or even hostile. The opportunity to act out is mitigated by the transactional distance inherent in online lessons and the expertise and training of our teachers.