The Leicestershire Virtual School is a local authority service whose role is to improve the education of children in care by supporting our Early Years settings, family of schools, carers and social workers to help children and young people to do their best.

We are an essential advocate for the importance of education and aim to raise self-esteem, expectations and aspirations and remove barriers to learning. We support schools to promote understanding of the issues faced by looked-after children and previously looked-after children and we have produced a “School LAC Policy template” for schools to base their own LAC policy.

School LAC policy template    PDF,  143 kbOpens new window

By working with schools and colleges, we ensure that children in care have good quality Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings. The PEP sets out plans for a child’s education and helps carers, teachers and social workers to understand and plan what we can do to offer extra support if and when needed.

Under the Children and Young Persons Act 2008, schools are required to appoint a Designated Teacher, to support the learning of children in care and manage the process of how the school works with the Virtual School and social workers to promote the child’s education.

The Virtual School provides regular updates and thorough training to Designated Teachers to ensure they are best equipped to enable our children and young people to improve their educational outcomes and life chances.

What we do:

Ensure children in care have a place in an Early Years setting and have a successful transition to school.

Make sure children in care have a school place and access to education at the most appropriate school for their needs

Encourage hobbies and attending fun and educational out of school activities

Keep changes of school to a minimum, especially during Year 6 and Year 11

Ensure regular PEP (Personal Education Plan) meetings (three times a year) and make sure the Pupil Premium Plus is used effectively

Make sure children in care are given the right sort of advice on careers or further education and encourage and support Post-16 learning   

Support carers and social workers to take an active role in a child’s education

Statutory guidance for local authorities to support looked after and previously looked after children's aspirations to achieve in further and higher education can be found here. 

We Are Family.