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Hyflex academy

A school 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 school where you are seen before you are assessed. Where the day flexes around what you need, and where there is always a way back in when things feel hard.

For families & carers

No forms first. We start with a conversation about your young person, not their label, and only then talk about timetables, transport and what a first week might actually look like.

For local authorities

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

who we are

A school built with purpose

The HyFlex Academy by The Greenhouse 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 room that fit. We hold around thirty at any one time, and we know every one of them 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.

our model

An in-person school, 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.

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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Jaspel 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

  • Personalised per learner
  • EHCP-aligned
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

  • Personalised per learner
  • EHCP-aligned
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.

How admissions work

Unhurried. Honest. Personal.

Every step is a conversation, not a form. Six unhurried moves from first enquiry to first day, shaped around the young person, not around our diary.
01

Initial enquiry

A short call, or an email. We ask about the young person, not paperwork, and share honestly, in that first conversation, whether HyFlex is the right fit for them.
02

Documentation

EHCPs, review notes, previous school reports and any specialist input come to us. We read them properly, cover to cover, before we meet.
03

Review & matching

The SLT meets to consider fit: pathway, environment, staff match, and  most importantly, whether we can genuinely serve this young person well.
04

Pre-placement

A visit. A walk. A video call. Whatever pace the young person can meet us at. No pressure to commit, we’re getting to know each other, and that takes as long as it takes.
05

Placement planning

Baseline assessments, EHCP alignment, a costed and dated plan, and a named key adult who will be theirs. Agreed together with the local authority and the family.
06

First day & beyond

A gentle start. Weekly key-adult reviews for the first half-term, then half-termly outcomes evidence for the Local Authority, for as long as the placement runs.

A school 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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