Page 44 - SEN116 January-February 2022

Post-16
The importance of providing
meaningful opportunities
Renee Flourentzou explains how establishing a broad-based cooperative trust can ensure all students have access to meaningful opportunities for work and independence in a landscape where these are often limited.
About the author
Renee Flourentzou is Director of Education at West Lea School and Trustee of Enterprise Cooperative Trust.
enterprisecooperativetrust.org.uk
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Students from across the world have been hit hard by the pandemic, but those who are vulnerable or those with specific and complex needs, arguably even more so. School closures and skyrocketing covid-related
absences throughout the past 16 months has made it much harder for students to gain the social, emotional, and physical support they need from teachers, peers and wider services to help them develop, learn and thrive.
Despite the challenges, we shouldn’t allow this to impact the future prospects of students, and especially those with SEN. This is something that Renee Flourentzou, Director of Education at West Lea School and Trustee of Enterprise Cooperative Trust, is incredibly passionate about. Here, she explains the steps the school, and Trust, is taking to ensure all its students in Enfield and beyond have access to meaningful opportunities for work and independence in a landscape where these are often limited.
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on every aspect of disabled people’s lives, including impacting negatively on 71 percent of disabled people who were employed in March 2020. Therefore, it’s important that we come together as a community to buck these trends and identify how we can
best support students and provide them with the opportunities to become responsible and confident young adults, who recognise and value their place in society.
Inside the school, we strive to provide all the support our students need to succeed. This is not only academically, but in key areas such as employment, independent living, friends, relationships, community and good health. We want to ensure
this attitude spreads into the community and beyond and continues long after students leave. We know our students are motivated to succeed, so it’s our responsibility to ensure they have the opportunities to achieve this.
That’s why we launched Enterprise Cooperative Trust (ECT) in 2020. Our Trust is designed to coordinate life-changing opportunities for young people in Enfield. Ultimately, our Trust exists to strengthen and uplift our community by harnessing the power of young people.
How it works
ECT is part of the wider co-operative movement. It encompasses cooperative values including self-responsibility, equity and solidarity, while also having its own values of hope, positivity and justice. Unlike a multi-academy trust, it is made up of various education institutions, including West Lea and College of Haringey,
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