Schools have joined together for the Virtual School conference aimed at raising aspirations and promoting the best educational outcomes for children and young people.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council hosted the event, bringing together teachers from maintained schools and Academy Trusts.
Virtual School Head Teacher, Nicola Donoghue opened the event, alongside Lily who represents care leavers. This year’s conference was named ‘See my future, not my past’ by young people involved in the Virtual School.
The Virtual School aims to remove barriers to education and ensure young people achieve the very best they can. It monitors the educational progress for children in care up to the age of eighteen, and advocates for children previously in care, supporting transition between educational settings. The Virtual School also promotes the education of children with a social worker, or who have had a social worker in the last six years.
Lily is a young person who grew up in foster care. She has gone on to gain 11 GCSEs, 3 A-levels and she is now studying pharmacy at university. She said: “One of my proudest achievements to date is being the care leaver representative on the virtual school governance panel, which I have been a part of since I was in Year 11. This means that I sit in on meetings to discuss how people in care are doing in education. I help to provide the insight of a child that has experienced education whilst being in care, to help the future generations of children in care.”
Tom Chamberlain, Interim Director of education and schools closes the conference by celebrating the achievements of young people in the East Riding. Tom said: “It’s great to see representatives from early years, primary schools and secondary schools, colleges and post 16 providers, plus young people, coming together to focus on joint work to support children to succeed and to reach their aspirations.”
Find out more about the work of the Virtual School: eryc.link/VirtualSchool
