Annual impact report 24/25

It has been quite the year for our Virtual School and I am incredibly proud to share with you the successes and experiences for our children and young people.

As our most vulnerable cohort, I am proud to say that our Virtual School really does go the extra mile for our children, advocating the very best possible outcomes; a real champion for our children and young people of Gateshead.

Always alongside our professional colleagues with empathy, determination and appropriate challenge, we have built excellent relationships across our schools, social care and the wider community, placing us in a strong position for future growth and impact. A position, recognised by Ofsted in our ILACS inspection in 2024.

It has been wonderful to see the Virtual School develop this year and I cannot wait to see their further growth and aspiration as we enter into this new academic year and beyond.

I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did.

I am incredibly proud to bring you our first Annual Impact Report which will outline the impact of our work for the academic year 2024/25...and what an incredible year it has been.

We have experienced many 'firsts' this year; first time the Virtual School has achieved 100% Personal Education Plan return, first national award for the Virtual School, first year the Virtual School has rolled out it's own unique enrichment programme.

I do hope you enjoy reading about our achievements this year and more importantly, the fantastic progress and experiences of our wonderful children.

1. Provision 

Ensuring every child within our VS has access to the best quality provision that meets needs and drives aspiration for future learning from ages 3-18.

2. Attendance

To work together to understand the barriers to attendance and work alongside families and colleagues to help remove them allowing wider access to education.

3. QFT

Ensure that all children have a robust and supportive Personal Education Plan which outlines clear interventions to enable all our children to achieve their very best.

4. Inclusion

To ensure that everyone's needs are fully understood and met within their setting. To improve cognitive understanding of Trauma Informed Practice and ensure that needs are embraced provision is adaptive.

5. Enrichment 

To provide a wealth of enriching opportunities which will widen our children's understanding of the world and harness their interests and talents. The pillars of cultural capital, sports and healthy lifestyle and STEM will be explored.

Our drive to improve outcomes for our young people is built upon a foundation of crafting collaborative relationships with our partners to ensure we are all working together to strive for the absolute best.

Outcomes 24/25

Data set for Autumn and Spring term 2024/25. National outcomes for KS1, 2 and 4 are not ratified nationally and therefore not publishable. The full outcomes will be published in our annual data report in March 2026.

• 8.1% absences - overall absence is 0.9% lower than the national average 
• 14.9% of persistence absence - 5.1% lower than the national average 
• 6.45 pupils with 1+ suspension which is 1.41 lower than the national average
• 38.5% achieved their KS2 SATS across reading, writing and maths combined (up 13% on last year) 
• 75.6% post 16 pupils on Education, Employment or Training 

Extended duty outcomes

• 16.79 Child in Need (CIN) cohort is a rate of 0.62 higher for suspensions 
• 0.27 CIN cohort is a rate of 0.08 higher for permanent exclusion 
• 13.8% CIN cohort is a rate of 1.5% lower for overall absence 

Training and CPD

• 10 schools who have engaged in our Belong Project
• 25 schools across Gateshead who have accessed our Trauma Informed Training offer 
• 3 residential care homes who have accessed the Trauma Virtual Reality headsets 
• 5 social care teams who have accessed the Virtual Reality headset training 

Family support 

• 76 families with a social worker supported directly by our Virtual School 
• 63 adopted children supported through Virtual School advice, support and guidance 
• 5 kinship networks engaged with across the year 

Our separated migrant children

• 21 separated migrant children within the Virtual School
• 20 in year 12 and 13 (post 16) 
• 1 child who is statutory school age - Year 11 
• 11 children are educated out of the borough 
• 17 young people are in education, employment or training 

What the support looks like:

• We have managed to secure specialist courses on ESOL programmes for most of our learners (English for Speakers of Other Languages
• Two young people are accessing vocational options (Mechanics and Electrical Installation)
• All of our separated migrant children get access to the same great support through the Virtual School - dedicated caseworker, Personal Education Plan, Pupil Premium attached for funded support
• We have secured a number of laptops through organisations such as The Kings Trust

Our oversight and quality assurance around education provision and outcomes is monitored through our electronic Personal Education Plan (PEP) system.

Every single child in our care has a robust PEP and an accompanying meeting which involves a range of supportive champions within the child's life; designated teacher, virtual school caseworker, social worker, carer, support workers.

In Gateshead, unlike many other Local Authorities, our Virtual School Caseworkers endeavour to attend every PEP meeting for our children, alongside their Care Team Meetings and Child in our Care Reviews, meaning that our Virtual School hold a robust oversight of every single child in care, enabling us to support, challenge and be curious with schools, colleagues and stakeholders.

PEP return 

This year for the first time in the Virtual School's history, we have achieved a 100% return during the Spring and Summer PEP seasons.

PEP development 

This year we have also worked with our designated teachers through our networking meetings to streamline the information held within the PEP making it more useful and supportive. We have streamlined the questions to avoid duplication and ensure more of the core content is pulled through from the previous PEP reducing workload for our designated teachers and ensuring that the focus and time can be better spent looking at the targets, outcomes and planned interventions for children.

Further changes include the alignment of the PEP with the child's EHCP, where appropriate, so the targets on the PEP align and contribute to the targets on the EHCP, meaning that all services are working towards a shared and common goal, allowing more frequent review of learning and progress and again streamlining workload for those professionals involved.

Quality assurance 

This year, an average of 98% of our PEPs were assessed as 'green' through our Quality Assurance process, meaning that the quality is strong and the planned interventions robust.

Pathways2Work

Our Pathways2Work programme continues to enhance opportunities for children between the ages of 14-18 through bespoke work experience options. Last academic year we had 45 children and young people access 236 days of work experience which is a fantastic level of engagement from our learners. Vocational areas have included construction, retail, education and hospitality. We look forward to strengthening our employer links next year and engaging a new cohort of children and young people in this exciting opportunity.

"It was nice getting good feedback instead of being told what I am doing wrong" - student feedback

"Her confidence has grown and she has stretched her comfort zone and succeeded" - carer feedback

Choices together

Our Choices Programme, delivered through the North East Raising Aspirations Partnership, is an opportunity for Year 7- 13 pupils to gain some experience of university life. There are events where children can meet other university students, some of whom are care experienced themselves, learn more about financial support for care experienced young people and also engage in campus tours, and interactive workshops.

This year the Virtual School is proud to announce that 4 of our young people have confirmed their places at university and start their higher education journey in September 2025. This year we have students pursuing studies in Art, Digital Media, Law and Philosophy and Sociology! We also have two of our Alumni attending university this year to study a BA in Illustration and a Mental Health Nursing degree. We also had two of our students achieve amazing results in their apprenticeships and have secured permanent employment within the engineering industry and the NHS.

Good luck... but not goodbye

Congratulations to all of our leavers and we look forward to hearing about your future successes as part of the Virtual School Alumni. 

Our Trauma Informed Schools pilot, BELONG, has become a beacon of success for all of our children in care and those with a social worker.

Delivered with our commissioned partners, Trauma Informed Schools UK, participating schools are trained in trauma informed practice at a leadership and whole school level. The content covers understanding the impact of trauma on the brain and body, helping us as adults to recognise this and develop strategies and whole school plans and practice to manage this and support the children to be better regulated.

To support understanding, this training also involves 3 networking opportunities across the year, support from the Virtual School to create their trauma informed action plan and a wealth of resources.

The feedback from the project initially has been phenomenal and we have now expanded this project through joint funding from the RIIA and the Virtual School to take another 20 schools through the programme in 25/26 meaning nearly 50% of the total schools in Gateshead will have been part of the project. Our aim is to have all schools through within the next 4 years.

Access to education

As a Virtual School we recognise that for some children attendance and engagement at school can be a real challenge. This could be due to significant needs, anxiety or ability to access and regulate. Last year we have introduced of AV1 pilot. These are small robots that 'sit in the child's space' in the classroom and the child can access the classroom learning through the robot's eyes and view this on an ipad or other tech device. This means children are not missing curriculum content, still feel connected to their class and enables a sense of connected belonging. It also reduces teacher workload and helps to bridge attendance and engagement back into the mainstream classroom. We are still in the early phases of our project but so far have two secondary schools and one primary school participating. Early indications show positive engagement and we lo forward to sharing the evaluation shortly.

Pupil Voice Research Project

This year we have commissioned a project with our Educational Psychology Team to try to better understand what our students want from their PEP. Pupils had been telling staff in school that the current Pupil Voice section of the PEP felt long and arduous. Our Educational Psychologist worked with students across different schools to hear their views and design what the pupil voice section should look and feel like. We are thrilled to announce that from September 2025, the pupil voice section of the PEP is entirely designed by our children in care and we hope that as a result, the feedback and engagement children have with their PEP will be much improved.

Joint project with Trusting Hands and Digital Voice

We have also worked on a joint project with Trusting Hands and one of our partners, Digital Voice to create a resource for teachers, professionals and settings. This video is all about understanding trauma and hearing from the children directly in a Digital Me animation, about how their experience of school has been and how we as professionals can help to make this journey as safe and steady for them as possible. This video was shown at our Virtual School Conference and the feedback was incredible. All delegates received a poster pack to display in their settings including some original art work created by the children and young people, alongside the QR code to the film itself. This is now being shared on Digital Voice's website so that others can learn from the powerful narratives and advice from our Gateshead Children in Care.

Understanding developmental trauma

Watch this powerful animation to hear how we can best meet the needs of our care-experienced students. 

Our enrichment programme

This year we have launched our exciting holiday enrichment programme whereby children in our care can access a range of holiday activities, free of charge in the realms of drama, writing, music, sport and science.

This year has been full to the brim with exciting activities and so far we have engaged nearly 40 children with the programme and with the help and support of the Children and Young People's participation team, we hope to grow this even further.

Our projects are delivered by commissioned partners and supported by staff at our Virtual School. We collaboratively risk assess and plan the projects together leading to true collaboration and supportive outcomes for the children.

Some of these projects have been funded by the Virtual School directly whereas some have been externally funded through funders like NECA (North East Combined Authority).

Drama and the arts

This year we partnered with Side by Side Arts in Bensham to provide a Summer Music Academy to ten children in our care.

10 children in our care attended 6 weekly workshops exploring different musical instruments including guitar, piano, drums and voice. The final workshop was the delivery of their own song which they sang and played themselves utilising the skills they have developed from the project!

They absolutely loved there time with everyone and hope that they can do this again - carer feedback

It was so much fun...loved playing different instruments. It was great fun and the socialising was great - student feedback

G.O.A.T Summer with New Writing North

4 of our children in care joined 8 young people from the HAF programme to explore a writing and drama project about the greatest summer of all time. This was held in the beautiful Baltic on our Gateshead Quays. The students worked collaboratively with New Writing North artists and local musical Kemma Kay to script their own drama, rehearse it and perform to their peers. It was an incredible three days where lots of new friendships were formed and collaboration was very fruitful.

Paint and plant day

Ten children in our care worked with artists to learn about the environment through the art of ink stamping and painting. They created a wealth of beautiful material, thought about how they could be more ecoaware and even generated their own e-zine to present their work.

Sing our Story....

We were fortunate enough to be able to offer 3 of our children in care the opportunity to complete life story work with an associate artist from Blue Cabin. The children worked with a local singer/songwriter to reflect on their story and turn this into a moving song which the artist composed and performed. All the children received a copy of their song and their social workers also received this so it can be held on the child's file. The children and carers were so proud to participate in the project and it was an absolute joy to be part of.

STEM workshops

This summer we have partnered with the North East Raising Aspirations Partnership to offer two exciting workshops on coding and Lego to Year 5 and 6 students to develop their skills in science, engineering and maths (STEM). The children really enjoyed the practical workshops and we are keen to work with these partners again to extend the offer next year.

Our training offer has been incredibly well received by schools and partners this year. Last academic year we delivered training to 5 children's homes, 5 social care teams, 25 education settings and a mockingbird group. This year we hope to deliver even more training to our settings and partners and wider the reach to our out of borough settings through interactive technology. The feedback from staff has all been incredibly positive:

Thank you so much for the training, they all really enjoyed it and learnt a lot.

I wanted to let you know what a buzz you created in school this morning. So many staff have caught me to say how informative they found the sessions.

I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation on Friday. I have attended numerous sessions, with a trauma-informed focus, over the years, and yours was by far the best - succinct and very informative

View our upcoming training

This year our Virtual School hosted our first ever Annual Conference.

It was a full day of inspirational speakers, thought provoking workshops and practical strategies to take back to settings. It was such an incredible day and it was a pleasure to be joined by so many colleagues from different sectors.

We had the privilege of being joined by Smash Life, who were truly remarkable and really brought their own lived experiences to the fore and helped us to challenge ourselves to think about how we meet the emotional needs of our young people.

Our pupils lead a workshop on pupil voice and the importance of holding that at the centre - they all did a fantastic job.

We heard from Trauma Informed Schools UK and our colleagues participating in our BELONG project on the impact of trauma informed approaches; gained knowledge on how to raise aspiration for children and access the best support for higher education and then finished the day with a practical and thought provoking session from our wonderful colleagues in Trusting Hands.

We also shared a fantastic resource for schools, professionals and settings about understanding trauma and hearing from the children directly in a Digital Me animation, how their experience of school has been and how we as professionals can help to make this journey as safe and steady for them as possible.

Please do join us for the 2026 conference - more details to follow soon.

Delegate feedback

4.94 out of 5 stars feedback. 

Every speaker was brilliant and the timings were very good. Thought the whole thing was useful and interesting.

I absolutely loved the whole day from start to finish. I took so much away. Thanks again!

This year the Virtual School were nominated for the Innovation Award at the Education Awards in Birmingham.

This was for our work alongside our partners, Cornerstone VR, who have helped to shape the development our of Virtual Reality Trauma Awareness training which has been delivered to schools, foster carers, kinship carers, social workers and residential homes.

We are proud to announce that we won the award and continue to deliver this incredible training to a range of partners across the service.