Purple Ruler × Athena Learning Trust — Shared Inclusion Provision 2026/27

One agreement · six academies, different needs

Six academies, one provider, one commissioning agreement.

Athena is six secondary academies and around 6,400 pupils across Devon and Cornwall. Rather than a separate contract each time a school needs us, one trust-wide agreement covers every category — a school commissions what it needs, when it needs it, and the whole trust sits on its lowest per-group rate from the first group. It also lets us plan ahead and ring-fence teacher quality across the trust.

secondary academies, ~6,400 pupils across Devon & Cornwall

2 live

Pool & Camborne teaching now — Bideford onboarding

£4.86

per pupil, per hour, in a full group of six (£29.17/hr per group)

1 rate

lowest per-group price locked, no minimum on schools taking part

Pool Academy

Live. Redruth, Cornwall. The fullest mix in the trust — Blueprint, Compass and Distinction all running, with live lessons delivered and more scheduled ahead.

Camborne Science & International Academy

Live. Camborne, Cornwall. Distinction stretch and exam preparation under way, with room to grow into Blueprint and Compass.

Bideford College

Onboarding. Bideford, Devon. The Year 11 period-6 flagship — demo delivered, parental introduction prepared, standing up for September.

Launceston College

Ready to join. Launceston, Cornwall. Ready to commission any category under the trust agreement.

The Ilfracombe C of E Academy

Ready to join. Ilfracombe, Devon. Ready to commission Distinction, Blueprint or Compass as needs arise.

Atlantic Academy

Ready to join. Bideford, Devon, ages 11–16, sharing a Prepare lead with Bideford — a natural early candidate to follow Bideford in.

A single agreement also lets us ring-fence our strongest English, Maths and Science specialists to Athena and build them into summer planning — with pooled and floating seats where the same profile recurs across schools. Prepared with Fiona Rowles-Jane (School Improvement Lead, Prepare & AP) and Laura Ryan (Assistant Principal, Prepare Lead — Bideford & Atlantic). White-space academies are illustrative until commissioned.

The flagship · Bideford College, Year 11

All of Year 11, in period 6, taught to grade across English, Maths and Science.

This is the programme already in motion: from September, the whole of Bideford's Year 11 accessing live specialist teaching in period 6 (3.10–4.10pm), three days a week, in English, Maths and Science. It is Distinction — our stretch and exam-preparation model — planned backwards from each student's target grade and driven by Bideford's own mock and question-level data. The demo lesson has been delivered and the parental introduction prepared.

~250–270

Year 11 students in scope across the programme

3 subjects

English, Maths and Science, taught by subject specialists

3 / week

period-6 sessions, in the existing 3.10–4.10pm slot

≤6

per group, grouped by gap to target, not by class

Scope as discussed with Laura and Fiona. A programme this size is a significant teacher allocation — which is why a signed agreement now lets us ring-fence our strongest English, Maths and Science teachers to Bideford and align schemes of work over the summer.

What we actually are

Three things every school in your trust buys separately. We do all three, together — once.

An online school, a tutoring service and a therapy provider are usually three contracts — multiplied by every school in the trust. We deliver all three as one shared inclusion provision, so the teaching, the catch-up and the wellbeing sit in one place and one record for the whole trust — without each school recruiting, timetabling or quality-assuring it alone.

🎓

An online school

Full, live, teacher-led timetables for pupils who can't be taught in the building — the same teachers every week, in small groups, from home or an on-site inclusion room.

🧭

1:1 & group tutoring

SEND-informed one-to-one and micro-cohort tuition — EHCP outcomes, Functional Skills, catch-up and exam entry, by subject specialists, on your scheme of work.

💜

Therapy & wellbeing

Talking therapy and counselling running alongside the academic work, on site or remotely — because for this cohort, regulation comes before learning.

Online school+Tutoring+Therapy=one inclusion department, on your timetable

Stitching it together yourself

A supply agency for the cover, a tutoring firm for catch-up, a counselling service for wellbeing — three contracts.
Three sets of standards, three safeguarding lines, three invoices.
Hard-to-fill specialist slots; gaps when a tutor drops out.
No single record when the EHCP review or the inspector asks.

One partner, one inclusion department

One contract covering teaching, tutoring and therapy.
One safeguarding line, one quality system, one invoice.
Named teachers who simply run, every week, all year.
One live record — attendance, progress and reports, ready for the review or the drop-in.

The pupils in the gap

The hardest pupils to serve in-house are the ones this is built for.

Every school in your trust carries a handful of pupils who don't fit the mainstream timetable — and alone, each is hard to place in a viable group. Pooled across the trust, they aren't. Click a pupil type to see how we hold it, and which programme fits.

Anxious & EBSA non-attenders

Too anxious to come in, slipping off-roll

A full live timetable from home, paced to the pupil, therapy alongside, attendance you can see the same morning.

Programme: Academy or Blueprint + Therapy

On the edge of exclusion

On report, at risk of a managed move

Structured group provision on your behaviour scheme — a restorative alternative to exclusion, with re-engagement built in.

Programme: Blueprint (internal AP)

SEND & EHCP learners

1:1, named in plan

One-to-one SEND-informed tuition mapped to EHCP outcomes and evidenced for the annual review.

Programme: Compass (1:1)

Exam-year catch-up

Year 11 / 13, behind target

Subject-specialist catch-up and GCSE/Functional Skills entry — group or 1:1, with a local exam-centre pathway.

Programme: Distinction / Blueprint

High attainers below target

Capable, coasting, under-stretched

Period-6 style stretch and acceleration for able pupils working below potential, without pulling a teacher off timetable.

Programme: Distinction (stretch)

Medical & part-timetable

Unwell, phased return, alt timetable

Live lessons that flex to what the pupil can manage, capped to capacity, never paused without your say-so.

Programme: Academy / Compass + Therapy

Category A

Academy

Full live online timetable — medical, EBSA, non-attenders.

~15–25 hrs/wk · groups of 6

Category B

Blueprint

Group provision on your scheme & timetable — behaviour, internal AP.

Groups of up to 6

Category C

Compass

1:1 SEND-informed — EHCP, SEMH, complex needs.

1:1 by specialist

Category D

Distinction

Tutoring, stretch & Functional Skills — catch-up, exams.

1:1 & small group

One platform, one set of teachers, one quality system across all four — so a pupil can move between programmes as their needs change, without you changing provider.

Five ways a trust puts us to work

Pool it once, then flex it by need across every school.

One shared provision, five tools for five kinds of pupil. Select a model to see what it looks like and which programme delivers it.

The trust-wide inclusion hub

Proven · The White Horse Federation

What a trust uses us for: pool the hardest-to-place pupils from every school into one shared provision — cheaper, and better for belonging.

Instead of each school buying its own patchwork of cover and tuition, the trust runs one shared inclusion hub with us: seats pooled across schools, 14+ differentiated groups built by need, real-time oversight for the central team. The White Horse Federation did exactly this — and found it 50–60% more cost-effective than separate, school-by-school delivery.

50–60%

more cost-effective than separate delivery

60+

pupils supported across pooled cohorts

14+

differentiated groups, live oversight

"Belonging as intervention" — vulnerable learners attend together across schools, reducing stigma.
Strong for EBSA and previously-absent pupils returning to learning.
Full story & the Director's own words below.

"The purpose of this work is to reach the students nobody else could."

— Tim James, SEND & Inclusion Lead, The White Horse Federation

Trust-widePooled cohortsEBSACost-effective

Read the full White Horse story below ↓

Blueprint — on your scheme of work

Behaviour & internal alternative provision

What a school uses us for: live group teaching of your at-risk pupils, inside your own timetable, schemes of work and behaviour systems.

Blueprint is the option schools choose when they want a restorative alternative to exclusion that still keeps the pupil on roll and on the curriculum. We teach groups of up to six, live, on your scheme of work and to your behaviour policy — an internal AP without you building the rooms or the rota. It's the lead provision for most schools and trusts we work with.

≤6

pupils per group, live & teacher-led

5-day

typical start from confirmation

Yours

your timetable, scheme & behaviour policy

Keeps pupils on roll and on the curriculum through a difficult patch.
Same named teachers; the same rubric you can use for drop-ins.

This is the shared Blueprint model now being built with trusts including Swale, Coombe, Beacon, Bridge and Vanguard.

— The most-commissioned Purple Ruler provision for schools

BehaviourInternal APOn-rollYour scheme

Compass — 1:1 SEND & EHCP

Named in the plan, evidenced for review

What a school uses us for: one-to-one specialist tuition for EHCP, SEMH and complex-needs pupils, mapped to plan outcomes.

When a pupil needs more than a group can give, Compass provides 1:1 SEND-informed tuition by a subject specialist, built around the EHCP or SEMH profile and evidenced for the annual review. Ofsted named SEND support a significant strength of our provision — it's the part of the model inspectors singled out. Several trusts pair Blueprint with Compass so groups and 1:1 sit under one contract.

1:1

specialist, mapped to EHCP outcomes

SEND

named a significant strength by Ofsted

"A significant strength of Purple Ruler is the support staff provide for pupils with SEND. Each pupil receives carefully tailored, individualised teaching."

— Ofsted, October 2025

EHCP 1:1SEMHAnnual review evidence

Distinction — stretch & catch-up

Period-6 without pulling a teacher off timetable

What a school uses us for: exam-focused catch-up for pupils below target, and stretch for able learners who are coasting.

Distinction is the everyday workhorse: small-group or 1:1 tutoring in the run-up to exams — closing gaps for Year 11/13 pupils below target, or stretching able pupils who've plateaued. It runs like a period-6 session without taking one of your own teachers off timetable to staff it, and supports Functional Skills and GCSE entry where needed.

≤6

per group, or 1:1

GCSE

& Functional Skills entry supported

Bideford College and Athena Learning Trust use this model for period-6 and trust-wide stretch — capacity without recruitment.

— The Distinction tutoring model

Exam catch-upStretchFunctional Skills

Academy — full online AP

A whole timetable for pupils who can't attend

What a school uses us for: a full, managed online school for pupils who can't be in the building at all.

For the pupil who simply can't attend — severe anxiety, medical needs, EBSA off-roll — Academy is a complete managed online timetable: live, teacher-led lessons in groups of six, building from core subjects to a full week. It keeps the pupil in education and on a record you can show while reintegration is worked towards, with therapy alongside.

15–25

hrs/wk, phased to capacity

≤6

per group, nationwide teacher network

48-hr

start once confirmed

"Staff help pupils to reignite their spark for learning… a calm and nurturing online environment."

— Ofsted, October 2025

EBSAMedicalNon-attendersReintegration

The playbook · a whole trust, in depth

The White Horse Federation: how one trust built a single, trust-wide alternative provision.

A pupil disengages early in secondary. Classes feel overwhelming, attendance slips, and school becomes somewhere to avoid. Bringing them back is rarely simple — and doing it well, in every school, gets expensive fast. The White Horse Federation took a different route: pool the hardest-to-place pupils from across the trust into one shared, belonging-led provision with Purple Ruler. It is also a step-by-step playbook any trust can follow.

Tim JamesSEND & Inclusion Lead, The White Horse Federation

"What we don't want to do is stay stagnant… we have to keep improving."

The case, in the trust's words

"The purpose of this work is to reach the students nobody else could."

One shared provision pairs the reach of remote teaching with the warmth of belonging — vulnerable learners attending together across schools and year groups, so alternative provision feels like opportunity, not exclusion. Accountable, scalable, and 50–60% more cost-effective than doing it school by school.

Map the hidden cohort across every school

The EBSA non-attenders, the pupils on the edge of exclusion, the EHCP learners on part-timetables — counted once, trust-wide. In most trusts they're carried separately by each school, on a different patchwork of cover and tuition.

Pool the seats into one shared provision

Instead of each school commissioning alone, the trust runs one inclusion hub with Purple Ruler. Seats are pooled, so a single school's two or three pupils join a viable group rather than waiting for numbers that never come.

Build groups by need, not by postcode

14+ differentiated groups formed around the pupil's profile — year, stage, subject, level of need — taught live by subject specialists in micro-cohorts of no more than six, with therapy and counselling alongside the academic work.

Make belonging the intervention

Vulnerable learners attend together, across schools and year groups, which reduces stigma and rebuilds confidence — especially for EBSA. The shared setting is the point: it feels like opportunity, not a punishment, and previously-absent pupils start returning.

Run it cheaper, with one line of sight

Remote teaching removes the need for specialist staff in every building; pooling fills groups; the central team gets real-time oversight of every group in one place. The result the trust reports: 50–60% more cost-effective than separate, school-by-school delivery, across 60+ pupils.

50–60%

more cost-effective than separate delivery

60+

pupils supported across pooled cohorts

14+

differentiated groups with live oversight

Read the full White Horse Federation story →

Figures and quotations from The White Horse Federation's published account of its trust-wide provision with Purple Ruler. Tim James interview reproduced with permission.

Quality assurance · live

Every lesson watched, graded against a rubric, within 24 hours.

Quality isn't a termly audit, it's a continuous loop. Every lesson is recorded and reviewed against the rubric for its category within 24 hours, so a dip is caught and coached the next day, not the next term — and you can use the very same rubric for your own drop-ins.

Every lesson recorded

Individual logins; the session is captured for review and safeguarding.

Reviewed within 24 hrs

Scored against the category rubric — e.g. Blueprint's 10 metrics across 30 points.

Feedback to the teacher

Specific, evidenced, the same day where it matters.

Coaching

Targeted support against the metric that dipped.

Re-observe

Checked again next cycle — the loop closes.

Observe→Feedback→Coach→Re-observe

Blueprint QA rubric — Category B

10 dimensions, each scored 1 (inadequate), 2 (developing) or 3 (established). Max 30. Tap a row to see what we look for.

	Dimension
1	Differentiation & ARE
	Work pitched to each pupil's age-related expectations and starting point.
2	Behaviour management (your systems)
	The teacher applies your school's behaviour policy and language, not a generic one.
3	Learner profiles & alignment
	Each pupil's SEND/EHCP profile is known and the lesson is shaped to it.
4	Understanding checks (CCQs/ICQs)
	Concept- and instruction-checking questions confirm pupils have actually understood.
5	Engagement & interaction
	Pupils talk, type and contribute — not a passive watch-the-screen lesson.
6	Lesson structure (6-step)
	A consistent, predictable shape every lesson — review, input, practice, check.
7	Teacher energy & rapport
	Warmth and pace that hold a disengaged pupil's attention online.
8	Professionalism
	Punctual, prepared, presented — the standards you'd expect in your own classrooms.
9	Low / no participation handling
	A clear playbook for the camera-off, silent or reluctant pupil — re-engage, don't write off.
10	Student feedback report
	Each pupil's response captured and fed back to you, lesson by lesson.

10–15 immediate support16–22 developing23–27 established28–30 exemplary

Named, qualified, fully checked teachers — enhanced DBS and clearances confirmed to your business manager.
Same teacher, every week — we block the slots up front so there's no termly re-approval and no gap where sessions quietly drop off.
Separate rubrics per category — Academy, Blueprint, Compass and Distinction, each with its own North Star (attendance, behaviour & engagement, regulation, curriculum).
The rubric is yours too — use it for your own drop-in observations, so you're judging us against the standard we judge ourselves.

Rubrics shared with school and trust leaders on request.

Safeguarding · KCSIE-aligned

Keeping children safe, online, by design.

Online doesn't mean less oversight — it means more. Every pupil has three ways to raise a concern, and every concern reaches a Designated Safeguarding Lead the same day, with a clear line back to your DSL.

A child needs help

Three routes: tell the teacher in the next lesson · the anonymous "Report a Concern" link in every email · or email safeguarding@purpleruler.com.

→

Seen & triaged same day

In-lesson moderation flags risk in real time; verified individual logins and session checks mean we know exactly who is in every room.

→

DSL acts

Same-day escalation to our DSL (Bella Ma), recorded, with an onward line to your DSL and children's services where needed.

Aligned to Keeping Children Safe in Education

Designated Safeguarding Lead

A named DSL and deputy; safeguarding@purpleruler.com on every placement, working to your DSL.

All four categories of abuse

Staff trained to recognise physical, emotional, sexual abuse and neglect — and online harms.

Filtering & monitoring

A safe platform: verified logins, IP/session checks, in-lesson moderation, no open access.

Safer recruitment

Enhanced DBS, references and qualifications checked; recorded on a single central record.

Child voice

An anonymous report route in every email, so a pupil can raise a concern without giving a name.

Information sharing

Same-day escalation and a clear trail you can rely on at inspection and in multi-agency work.

Three levels of sight

The record that lets you evidence every pupil — and prove it.

Whatever the cohort, every school gets the same backbone: real-time attendance you, the SENCO and parents can all see; structured chasing of non-attendance; and a half-termly report benchmarked to age-related expectations. When a pupil joins a lesson they register immediately, so you see who isn't there the same morning — the evidence trail for your records, EHCP reviews and inspection, built in.

Live attendance, refreshed through the day, in a read-only dashboard for your team.
Escalation + welfare calls logged against safeguarding.
Half-termly ARE reports for every pupil — example to the right.

Half-termly progress report

Pupil A. · Year 10 · Summer half-term

Attendance 82%

Subject	Working at	Vs ARE	Effort
English	Grade 4 (secure)	On track	Good
Maths	Grade 3 (developing)	Just below	Good
Science	Grade 4 (emerging)	On track	Strong
Wellbeing	Engaging in therapy	Improving	—

Teacher comment: Attendance up from 61% last half-term. Now contributing in small-group English and accepting 1:1 check-ins in Maths. Reintegration review recommended next term.

Illustrative example; anonymised, pupil details withheld.

Assured quality

Ofsted: meets all the standards. SEND, a significant strength.

A registered, Ofsted-accredited online alternative provider (DfE URN 152279) — meeting all the standards across all eight sections. When you commission us, you're already working with a provider held to the standards your school has to evidence. Inspectors also found commissioners feel well-informed — the communication you'd want from a partner.

View the Ofsted report →

"Meets all the standards"

Ofsted, October 2025. SEND provision named a significant strength; staff praised for helping pupils "reignite their spark for learning".

Commissioning & cost

Pay for what runs. Priced per group or session — not per registered pupil.

No set-up fee, nothing upfront, invoiced monthly. Because group provision is priced per group, your cost per pupil falls as more pupils re-engage — a group of six and a group of two cost the same. Indicative rates below; we build a costed plan around your actual cohort.

Programme	Best for	Indicative rate
Academy — full online timetable, ≤6	EBSA / medical / non-attenders	£139–£199 / pupil / wk (15–25 hrs)
Blueprint — group AP on your scheme, ≤6	Behaviour / internal AP / on-roll	£29.17 / hr per group (≈£4.86/pupil at 6)
Compass — 1:1 SEND-informed	EHCP / SEMH / complex needs	£29.17 / hr per subject
Distinction — tutoring, stretch & Functional Skills	Catch-up / exams / stretch	£29.17 / hr
Therapy & mental-health support — add-on	Any cohort	£180 / month per learner

Pooled across the trust, this is where the White Horse Federation found provision 50–60% more cost-effective than separate, school-by-school delivery — same headcount, far lower cost per pupil as groups fill. Free one-week pilot, no obligation; we model the trust-wide saving against your actual cohort.

The practical questions

What a business manager and a SENCO usually ask.

How quickly can provision start?

Blueprint typically starts within five working days of confirmation; Academy within 48 hours. We block the whole year up front so teachers and slots are fixed from day one.

Do lessons run on our curriculum, or yours?

Blueprint runs on your scheme of work, timetable and behaviour policy — we teach your pupils your way. Academy uses our full managed curriculum for pupils who need a complete timetable. Either way, pupils stay on your roll.

How are teachers checked?

Every teacher is qualified, with enhanced DBS, references and qualifications verified and recorded on a single central record. Clearances are confirmed to your business manager before delivery, and you get the same named teachers every week.

What about exams and accreditation?

We support GCSE and Functional Skills entry, and can arrange a local exam-centre pathway where a pupil can't sit them with you. We're a registered, Ofsted-accredited online provider (DfE URN 152279).

How does safeguarding work with our DSL?

We have a named DSL (Bella Ma) and deputy. Concerns are triaged the same day and escalated, with a clear line straight to your DSL and to children's services where needed. Every lesson is recorded; every pupil has an anonymous route to raise a concern.

How is it priced, and can we stop?

Priced per group or per session, not per registered pupil, invoiced monthly with no set-up fee. There's a free one-week pilot, and provision can be stopped on short notice — you pay for what runs.

We're part of a trust — can provision be pooled?

Yes — this is the model the White Horse Federation uses. Seats are pooled across schools so single pupils join viable groups, groups are built by need rather than by site, and the central team gets one line of sight. The trust reported it 50–60% more cost-effective than separate delivery. Happy to bring your trust's central team into the conversation if useful.

This isn't a pitch from scratch. Two academies already teach with us — and each uses us differently.