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Hyflex academy

Alternative provision built around the young person, not the timetable

An alternative provision academy in Cheshire for young people who need something other than mainstream. Small by design. Personal by principle. Ambitious by choice.

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For young people

A provision where understanding you and assessing what you need happen together from the first conversation, and your plan stays thoughtful, thorough and genuinely flexible.

For families & carers

A careful admissions process that brings conversation, documentation and assessment together, so the timetable, transport and first week are built around your young person.

For local authorities

Bespoke, EHCP-led placements for young people who need alternative provision. Referrals reviewed personally by our SLT, and a costed plan agreed together before day one.

who we are

Provision built with purpose

The Greenhouse HyFlex Academy is a small alternative provision in Cheshire for young people who have found mainstream school impossible, through anxiety, exclusion, illness or simply never having been given a place that fit. We are intentionally small, so we can know every young person properly.

Most of the week happens in person, at our staffed Education Centre in Chester;  small groups, therapy input, coaching and workshops in a room that feels held. When a young person needs a different way in for a while, At Home and Online sit alongside it, delivered by the same team, and always leading back. Every plan is pitched at their stage, not their age, and revised as often as they need it to be.

Everything we do rests on three quiet priorities, in order: engagement first, then reintegration, then qualifications. Stability before progress; progress before paperwork.

In-person provision, with room to flex

The heart of HyFlex is our Education Centre in Chester, a small, staffed base where most learners spend most of their week. When a young person needs a different way in for a while, At Home, Online, or Outdoors, those options are ready, delivered by the same team, and always lead back to the Centre.

Education centre

Our staffed base in Chester and the main way HyFlex is delivered. Small groups, therapy input, coaching and workshops in a room that feels held.

At home

1:1 support in the young person’s own environment, with a named adult. Often the first step back when the Centre still feels too far away.

Online learning

Live-taught sessions and a self-paced hub. A steady bridge for young people rebuilding the rhythm of a school week.

Moving on

Careers, work experience and our Section 41 Post-16 institution. Coaching and termly careers meetings, led by our Level 7 Senior Careers Leader.

Skilled. Caring. Unwilling to give up

A small, deliberately chosen team of teachers, coaches, therapists and mentors, who know every young person by name and story, not by cohort or referral form.
Tara Jones

Education Director

Tara is Director of Education, with extensive experience leading specialist provision for children and young people with complex needs. She ensures all settings within the group maintain the high level of educational quality and student progression that is embedded across our provisions.
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Fiona Conde

Head of Education

Fiona is Head of Education with over 25 years of experience across mainstream and alternative education. She is passionate about inclusive, nurturing environments and personalised pathways that help young people re-engage, build confidence and achieve positive outcomes.
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Jaspal Singh

Mental Health Practitioner

Jaspal is a Mental Health Practitioner with extensive NHS experience across CAMHS and Mental Health Support Teams. He delivers evidence-based therapeutic support, working collaboratively with education staff and families to integrate wellbeing into every learner’s journey.

Six areas, one plan

A framework, not a formula

A good curriculum is not a straight line. We hold separate frameworks for ages 11–16 and 16+, but the ages are a starting point, not a gate. A learner meets the curriculum at the stage that fits them.

Six areas of learning

Ages 11-16

  • KS3 & KS4
English
Reading for meaning. Writing to be understood. Speaking with the confidence to be heard. Delivered 1:1 or in small groups, always pitched at the right level.
Maths
Functional maths, built on the baseline gaps first. Number confidence. Real-world problem solving. Then, and only then, the formal qualification.
Digital Skills
Employability-focused digital literacy. From files and folders to safe online life, IT support, coding fundamentals and creative tech.
Movement & Wellbeing
A daily anchor. Physical activity, regulation strategies and mental-health-informed practice, woven through the whole day, not bolted onto the end of it.
PSHE & Life Skills
Cooking, budgeting, transport, healthy relationships, rights and responsibilities. The practical scaffolding of adult life, taught in the school day.
Extracurricular
Hobbies, community trips, forest school and the What’s the Point projects, where a young person very often first finds their thing.

Preparing for adulthood

Ages 16-19

  • Post-16 specialist institution under Section 41
Employability
CVs, applications, interview practice and workplace communication. The quiet habits, timekeeping, reliability, self-advocacy, that make an employer say yes.
Moving On & Life Skills
Budgeting, transport, tenancy basics, appointments and healthy relationships. The scaffolding of adult life, taught deliberately rather than assumed.
Health & Social Care
An introduction to a real sector, safeguarding, values, communication and roles, for learners considering care, support work or a college pathway.
Hospitality
Kitchen skills, food safety, front-of-house and customer service. Practical, hands-on learning with recognisable next steps into college and local employers.
English & Maths
The literacy and numeracy employers, colleges and landlords actually ask for. Pitched to the learner’s current level and worked towards a recognised Functional Skills qualification.
Digital Skills
Everyday digital confidence, email, documents, online safety, admin platforms, plus the tech that opens doors in modern workplaces. Practical, not performative.

How it works

The beliefs that shape everything we do

Engagement first

Before literacy, numeracy, before anything at all, a young person has to want to be in the room. That's the work of the first term.

Adapted, never diluted

How we teach flexes. Where we're going does not. Every learner is on a real pathway, not a holding pattern.

Behaviour is information

It tells us what the day is asking of a young person and where the gap sits. We answer it, we do not punish it.

Our setting is best understood in person

A quiet half-hour walk-through will tell you more than any prospectus. Come at a time that suits you, weekdays, evenings, or a weekend if that’s what makes it possible.
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Life at HyFlex Academy

News, stories & small celebrations

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