Alternative learning in brief: a tailored menu of development and learning opportunities for disengaged pupils in school years 10 and 11 (aged 14-16)

The Venture Alternative Learning (VAL) project aims to identify and work with young people aged 14-16 (school years 10 and 11) who are either struggling to adapt to mainstream education or just unfocused within school, ultimately leading to issues of behaviour and poor attendance. Through a package of opportunities, designed around the young people, the project is designed to:

There is provision for a maximum of fifty participants and we generally run with about forty five young people actively engaged with us at any one time

The Venture is a registered Open College Network (OCN) centre and we endeavour to structure our sessions to meet the entry level and level 1 requirement for a number of existing OCN units.

Accreditation remains pivotal to the credibility of the project and, more importantly, the monitoring, development and progression of the young people. During the reporting year of 2006/'7, many of the project participants achieved awards as a direct result of participation in activities. These include:

As part of their experience, some young people have been involved in film making courses. To see the results:
Click here for a short general film about the Venture
Click here for Halloween and Bonfire night 2007 at the Venture
And Click here for a creative piece, completed by a VAL group in 2008

Note: the VAL project has been the subject of a post-graduate piece of research to establish the value of alternative curriculum schemes. We were thrilled with the observations within the thesis, which will be available here once the academic publishing has taken place.