Student Applications

Pennine offers education, training and support for young people with special needs. We welcome applications from all students, regardless of their disability or impairment. To enquire about student vacancies for 2008/2009, please phone our Admissions Secretary.

Initial contact

First enquiries can be made by telephone, letter, e-mail or via the contact form on this website.  Applications are usually made by parents or Connexions advisers, but social workers, schools or local education authorities may also apply on behalf of a young person.

Admissions procedure

The first step of the admissions procedure is to complete our Initial Student Enquiry form by phoning our Admissions Secretary on 01924 255281. If you have not already done so, we urge you to contact your local Connexions services as soon as you make an application.

For various reasons, we do not interview prospective students until the academic year in which they would be admitted.  But we are glad to receive initial information about them during the preceding spring term, e.g. for admission in Autumn term 2009, we would welcome initial information in Spring 2008. However, we would not proceed further until we have finished processing 2008 admissions. Applications started outside our term dates will take longer than those started during term time.

We take great care to ensure that the education we offer meets the needs of individual students, so the application and assessment process can be quite lengthy.

Our Admissions Group will consider the information on the Initial Student Enquiry form, and decide on the best way to proceed.  If it indicates that we may be able to meet the prospective student’s needs, we will request further information including recent school, Connexions, respite care and medical reports, and a social history, in order to assess whether the application should proceed. An informal visit to Pennine may also be arranged at this stage, or we may offer a pre-interview visit when the prospective student will meet with members of the Admissions Group.

If appropriate we will invite the prospective student, with their parents/guardians, social worker or others for an interview. During this an Interview Form will be completed and any questions arising from the reports will be discussed. 

Following a successful interview, the young person would be offered a pre-course day assessment when they would join in with the students’ activities, usually in the classroom or a work area, in a workshop and during leisure time.  Further assessment days/visits, perhaps including an overnight stay, may follow.  From co-workers’ observations, interview notes and previous reports, an assessment is made.  If successful, an informal offer of a place is sent to parents, social workers and the Connexions adviser.  We request that parents confirm acceptance of the place.

Funding

Students are funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), the public body responsible for planning and funding education and training.  Following acceptance of a place by a student and his or her parents, our Admissions Group will use the assessments made during the application procedure to gauge the student’s support needs according to LSC guidelines. We also write an Individual Learning Programme for the student which will form the basis of a contract between Pennine and the LSC.

The Connexions adviser will then apply for funding.   Funding is usually, but not always, for 2 years, and we may apply for an extension of funding for a third year when it has been decided at the annual review that this is appropriate.  In exceptional circumstances, when a student will benefit from further time at Pennine, funding can be sought from a variety of sources, including social services, benefits and private means.