To start off this blog, I thought I’d do a bit of an introduction. My hopes is that people who work in alternative provisions find this blog, and in the future, are able to use my resources, within their own settings.

Alternative Provisions (which I will be referring to as APs most commonly throughout the blog) are not new. They have been around for a while, but they look different depending on where you are. Just to be clear- I do not run a PRU. I run an Internal Alternative Provision that makes up part of a mainstream school- I have had experience in PRUs, but very limited. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the things I share cannot be adapted to PRUs, I am sure there will be things that can be used and adapted, but the resources I make are very much aimed at my own AP.

So who am I? Well- as I stated- I run an AP. This September will start my third year of doing so. I enjoy my job thoroughly, I get a lot of satisfaction of working with small groups of students, and I do feel that I have found my calling- however, it is not an easy job. The job is tiring, sometimes thankless, and holds, in my opinion, a certain stigma. On a daily basis, many of my colleagues tell me that they could never imagine doing my job. They couldn’t fathom working with the types of students I deal with, and they have no idea how I can stick it out. There are some days that I agree with them, of course… When I have attended yet another return from suspension meeting, in which a parent has done nothing but shout at their child, when I have had to go scrounging around in my first aid kit for another ice pack for a student who has punched the wall out of frustration, and when I have had to do yet another safeguarding CPOMS log…but truth be told, I can’t imagine doing any other job now.

Part of me cannot believe that I am starting a blog in 2025. Teenage me who was reading fashion Tumblr blogs back in 2012 would be so proud, I am sure. I can’t predict where this blog will take me, but I hope you will come along.

Yours,

The Alt Ed Teacher x