The Virtual School provides access to a multidisciplinary team through strong links with the many individuals, teams, schools and agencies that are involved in supporting the education of children in care. The Virtual School also provides advice and guidance to previously looked after children and young people and all children with a social worker.

The team consists of a head teacher, Operations Manager, two Advisory Teachers, nine Education Officers, an Office Manager and Administrator.

The service is managed by Children and Education Directorate 

The Albion Foundation is a registered charity that works in partnership with West Bromwich Albion Football Club. It provides educational and sporting opportunities to the most disadvantaged young people in school years 5-9.

The partnership between The Albion Foundation and The Sandwell Virtual School began in 2000 and has progressed to include the delivery of dedicated enrichment sessions and residential programmes.

Aspire2Uni (A2U) is a progressive programme for young people in care who are in Year 7 upwards. Working in partnership with Virtual Schools from 5 local authorities within the West Midlands including the Sandwell Council. A2U has been successfully running at Wolverhampton University since 2015.

One of the main aims of the programme is to raise the aspirations and attainment of Looked After Children and young people to support them through their educational journey to the University or work to increase better life chances and economic independence.

The vision is to develop well rounded, confident and responsible individuals to make informed choices about Higher Education as their educational pathway.  By breaking down barriers, increasing self-belief and raising aspirations we aim to enable our participants to reach and expand their potential.

The Attachment Research Community (ARC) is a charity established by Virtual School Heads, Education Professionals, Psychologists, Training Organisations and Academics.

ARC works to support all schools and education settings to be attachment and trauma aware in their ethos, mindset and practice across the whole of their learning community. Bringing together best practice in the education sector to share knowledge and bring about accelerated sector innovation and improvement.

They are calling upon ALL within the education sector to bring about a deeper understanding of the impact of deprivation and poor early life experiences on educational and life outcomes 

Beanstalk is a national charity that has been working with schools since 1973 to help raise literacy standards. They focus on the child’s successes and build the child’s reading confidence using a range of general literacy resources. They equip adults and young people to 'do reading' better with children because the more children encounter confident, capable and inspiring support with their reading – at home, in school and in life – the more they are likely to get on and stay on the path to becoming a reader.  Beanstalk believes that when a child becomes a reader, they get the very best chance in life and that time spent reading for pleasure has just as much (if not more!) importance as learning to decode.

Each child receives their own colourful parcel of books, maths games, stationery and other high quality materials once every month for six months, usually from May to October. For many children, it's the first time they have had a letter or a parcel through the post and for some it's the first time they have had books of their own.

The Sandwell Music Education Hub is one of 122 Music Education Hubs being supported by DfE funding administered by Arts Council England. The running of the hub is managed through SIPS Education’s Music and Arts Service, which has provided music tuition and ensembles to schools and young musicians in the Sandwell area.

The Virtual School and the Music & Arts Service are working together to provide the opportunity for all Looked After Children in Year 4 to have the opportunity to start lessons on a musical instrument. Within the team they have specialist instrumental teachers, offering a wide range of musical expertise for the pupils in the programme.

Thrive aims to help children and young people become more emotionally resilient and better placed to engage with life and learning. They do this through whole-school approach to wellbeing - proven to improve attendance, behaviour and attainment. Thrive has been providing training, tools and insights to organisations and individuals for over 25 years.

A number of our team are now qualified Thrive Practitioners. This has enabled young people to benefit from one to one Thrive sessions that are personalised to the young persons needs. Lots of work around emotions and understanding how and why we feel what we do is being undertaken with the young people along with looking at strategies to help manage them.