Our children don't go to school for many reasons. Some are phobic, excluded, sick, terminally ill, disaffected. About 12 per cent have a statement. More than 70 per cent claim to have been bullied in school and say that they cannot face returning. Others are young carers. Some are permanently excluded, often for behavioural reasons. We take young people who really have nowhere else to go.

Notschool.net began in 2000 as a research project funded by the DfES to re-engage the most hard-to-reach and disaffected young people. Many had not been to school for a long time. Since then, about 4,500 young people have been through the system. We don't try to get them back into school, but to re-engage them in learning.

Many are referred from schools. Once a child is referred, we make sure that they are eligible for the project. We need two professionals to say that they believe Notschool.net is the right environment. As the project of the last resort, we have to get this right.

We run 24/7, 365 days a year: hard-to-reach children do not operate on conventional hours. We have 200 qualified and experienced people all over the world.

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All young people have a face-to-face induction to make sure that they can log on and find their way around. This is followed by a home visit. It's a chance to find out what their interests are, whether it is English, maths, skateboarding or ferrets.

We have to do a lot of things on their terms to engage them. If you take away the pressure, what they find challenging, upsetting or difficult, then learning accelerates quite quickly. They can follow the national curriculum if they want, but most prefer a project-based approach. There's almost all the usual subject areas of a normal school with plenty of other stuff as well.

About 98 per cent re-engage in learning, gaining a qualification recognised by the national qualifications framework and enough points to get into college. About 72 per cent get college places.

All bar a few gain employment. Other successes are measured in less conventional ways. One child who was afraid of going out of the house gained enough confidence to go outside.

Fast learners

According to Inclusion Trust, the charity set up in 2005 that runs the Notschool.net project, 100,000 children in England are missing out on education.

A paper for the trust says that the Government “does not know the true extent of the problem”.

At the same time there has been a surge in parents choosing to educate children at home.

Peter Humphrys, a former head teacher who is chairman of the Centre for Personalised Education, says: “This is due to a whole range of issues with our traditional schooling system. Everybody, from whatever perspective, knows that it's not quite right. The difference is over whether we try to improve it or look towards something different and creative.

“Notschool.net does a brilliant job. It's incredibly good value for money, costing less than a pupil referral unit.”

www.notschool.net

If you have an example of good practice to share, contact us at: agenda@thetimes.co.uk

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