Specialist semh school
A school built around the young person, not the timetable.
An alternative-provision academy in Cheshire for young people who need something other than mainstream. Small by design. Personal by principle. Ambitious by choice.
For young people
A school where you are seen before you are assessed. Where the day flexes around what you need, and where there is always a way back in when things feel hard.
For families & carers
No forms first. We start with a conversation about your young person, not their label, and only then talk about timetables, transport and what a first week might actually look like.
For local authorities
Bespoke, EHCP-led placements for young people who need alternative provision. Referrals reviewed personally by our SLT. A costed plan agreed before day one.
A school built with purpose
We started in October 2023 with an online learning platform for young people who couldn’t attend school. It quickly became clear that content alone was never going to be enough. So in September 2024 we added a tutoring service for the learners who needed structure as much as they needed subject knowledge.
Even then, something was missing. Our tutors were excellent, but these young people needed a real timetable, a real day-to-day routine, and a plan pitched at their stage, not their age. The only way to give them that was to become accountable for it ourselves. So in January 2025 we opened a provision they could actually attend. That is, genuinely, how HyFlex was born.
Everything since has been built on three quiet priorities, in order: engagement first, then reintegration, then qualifications. Stability before progress; progress before paperwork.
An in-person school, with room to flex
Education centre
At home
Online learning
Meet the team
Skilled. Caring. Unwilling to give up
A small, deliberately chosen team of teachers, coaches, therapists and mentors, who know every young person by name and story, not by cohort or referral form.
Tara Jones
Headteacher
Sets the school’s trauma-informed, relationship-first tone, from baselining to outcomes.
Fiona Conde
Deputy Head
Runs the day-to-day of the education centre, pastoral lead, safeguarding lead, and first point of contact for families.
Jaspel Singh
Leadership & Strategy
Partnerships, admissions and the operational fit between HyFlex and each local authority.
Six areas, one plan
A framework, not a formula
A good curriculum is not a straight line. It progresses a young person while leaving room to adapt, revisit and re-pace as the day, the week, or the term demands. We hold separate frameworks for ages 11–16 and 16+, but the ages are a starting point, not a gate. A learner meets the curriculum at the stage that fits them, not the one their date of birth suggests.
Six areas of learning
Ages 11-16
- Personalised per learner
- EHCP-aligned
English
Reading for meaning. Writing to be understood. Speaking with the confidence to be heard. Delivered 1:1 or in small groups, always pitched at the right level.
Maths
Functional maths, built on the baseline gaps first. Number confidence. Real-world problem solving. Then, and only then, the formal qualification.
Digital Skills
Employability-focused digital literacy. From files and folders to safe online life, IT support, coding fundamentals and creative tech.
Movement & Wellbeing
A daily anchor. Physical activity, regulation strategies and mental-health-informed practice, woven through the whole day, not bolted onto the end of it.
PSHE & Life Skills
Cooking, budgeting, transport, healthy relationships, rights and responsibilities. The practical scaffolding of adult life, taught in the school day.
Extracurricular
Hobbies, community trips, forest school and the What’s the Point projects, where a young person very often first finds their thing.
Preparing for adulthood
Ages 16-19
- Personalised per learner
- EHCP-aligned
Employability
CVs, applications, interview practice and workplace communication. The quiet habits, timekeeping, reliability, self-advocacy, that make an employer say yes.
Moving On & Life Skills
Budgeting, transport, tenancy basics, appointments and healthy relationships. The scaffolding of adult life, taught deliberately rather than assumed.
Health & Social Care
An introduction to a real sector, safeguarding, values, communication and roles, for learners considering care, support work or a college pathway.
Hospitality
Kitchen skills, food safety, front-of-house and customer service. Practical, hands-on learning with recognisable next steps into college and local employers.
English & Maths
The literacy and numeracy employers, colleges and landlords actually ask for. Pitched to the learner’s current level and worked towards a recognised Functional Skills qualification.
Digital Skills
Everyday digital confidence, email, documents, online safety, admin platforms, plus the tech that opens doors in modern workplaces. Practical, not performative.
How it works
The beliefs that shape everything we do
Engagement is the first subject
Before literacy, numeracy, before anything at all, a young person has to want to be in the room. That's the work of the first term.
Adapted, never diluted
How we teach flexes. Where we're going does not. Every learner is on a real qualification pathway, not a holding pattern.
Behaviour is information
It tells us what the day is asking of a young person and where the gap sits. We answer it, we do not punish it.
How admissions work
Unhurried. Honest. Personal.
Every step is a conversation, not a form. Six unhurried moves from first enquiry to first day, shaped around the young person, not around our diary.
01
Initial enquiry
A short call, or an email. We ask about the young person, not paperwork, and share honestly, in that first conversation, whether HyFlex is the right fit for them.
02
Documentation
EHCPs, review notes, previous school reports and any specialist input come to us. We read them properly, cover to cover, before we meet.
03
Review & matching
The SLT meets to consider fit: pathway, environment, staff match, and most importantly, whether we can genuinely serve this young person well.
04
Pre-placement
A visit. A walk. A video call. Whatever pace the young person can meet us at. No pressure to commit, we’re getting to know each other, and that takes as long as it takes.
05
Placement planning
Baseline assessments, EHCP alignment, a costed and dated plan, and a named key adult who will be theirs. Agreed together with the local authority and the family.
06
First day & beyond
A gentle start. Weekly key-adult reviews for the first half-term, then half-termly outcomes evidence for the Local Authority, for as long as the placement runs.
A school is best understood in person
A quiet half-hour walk-through will tell you more than any prospectus. Come at a time that suits you, weekdays, evenings, or a weekend if that’s what makes it possible.
Life at HyFlex Academy
News, stories & small celebrations
Welcome to our new Deputy Head Teacher
We’re delighted to introduce a new member of our leadership team, bringing more than fifteen years of SEMH and ALN experience to Cumbers House.
Outdoor learning in the Welsh hills
Why our HyFlex model takes learning beyond the classroom, and what happens when young people step into landscape, weather and the freedom to try.
A spring term of small steps
From first-time GCSE entries to a confident return after months out of school — this term has been full of the quiet, hard-won progress that defines us.
Tell us about the young person
Prefer to talk it through? We’re happy to take a call, answer an email, or arrange a visit at a pace that works, for the young person first, and everyone else after.
- 01244 604 063
- hyflexacademy@ourgreenhouse.co.uk
- www.ourgreenhouse.co.uk
- Chester, Cheshire
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Whether you're considering a referral, looking for the right placement or simply want to learn more, share a little about yourself and we'll get back to you personally.