The ethos of our school is about being different and offering an alternative to mainstream education that identifies with the differences in young people, the challenges they face and their aspirations.

We centre our strategy on empowerment and engagement through creative, cultural and artistic pathways that intertwine with personal social development activity. Our style of delivery suits the young people we work with because it is vocationally led, has many transferable outcomes and sets small, progressive and achievable targets.

We recognize that every young person is different and as such treat them this way, offering support that is individualised and personal and which will generate the best possible outcomes.

Based at the newly refurbished Cartwright House annex to the Mitchell Memorial Theatre, our facilities offer modern learning environments and amenities. Our school is centrally located to maximize accessibility from all parts of the city with the ethos of both the youth theatre and Unity working in synergy to embrace the arts and creativity through learning.

Small groups and high levels of support

High levels of individual attention are central to achieving our aims, and the school’s excellent staff to pupil ratio is a minimum 1:6. Small class sizes mean that teachers spend less time trying to control students, and spend more time focusing on actually teaching and giving individual attention to each student to support them with their own unique needs.

Through assessment and partnership working across multi-agencies we are able to fully assess the needs of each individual referred to our service. We are then able to explore potential ability and preferences through a variety of creative, cultural and sport based activities, environments and amenities. Unity Independent School is not affiliated to any specific religion and values diversity and equality in its everyday practice.

Student ethos

An important part of growing up and becoming a productive young adult is developing sufficient emotional resilience to cope with independence. We work across multi-agencies and amend our own delivery styles to support young people in achieving resilient and positive strategies to deal with issues and problems.

We believe that a broader range of cultural experiences complements the way a young person grows up. Seeing a bigger city, travelling by train, visiting diverse communities and tasting new foods all combine to raise aspirations and ambitions.

Our staff team work hard to set a positive example and challenge negative views and opinions. Our curriculum seeks opportunities to utilise issues and attitudes as a source of exploration and learning in order to better equip young people with knowledge of the outside world.

We use vocational activities - our PHSEE curriculum and basic functional skills development are the basis for progression into leading a productive life economically and socially.

Age range:

13-16 years

Qualifications you will study

• AQA English - GCSE
• AQA Maths - GCSE
• AQA Citizenship Studies - GCSE
• AQA Physical Education - GCSE
• Edexcel BTEC Sport and Active Leisure - Entry Level 1
• Edexcel BTEC Creative Media Production - Entry Level 1
• Edexcel BTEC Retail Knowledge - Entry Level 1
• Edexcel BTEC IT Users - Entry Level 1