Welcome

Tor School is a special place; we are extremely proud of our school and all our wonderful students. 

We believe in people and their capacity; we look for the good.

Tor is like a family; we look out for each other, and we work tirelessly to ensure that children and young people who are part of our school have the right support at the right time to ensure the best possible outcomes. 

We have a clear focus on pupil's personal development and their next destination; whether that be returning to a mainstream school, moving on to college or another setting, starting an apprenticeship or joining the world of work. 

It is important that we teach our young people coping skills, emotional resilience and a sense of worth, belonging and self-confidence.

Our wordle of values has been co-created with staff and students and it summarises the key things that Tor believes: 

Students attend Tor for variety of reasons whilst on their educational journey, but all our students and have equal value and worth and we work tirelessly to help all our students to develop as people and prepare them for life after 16.

 As leaders and as a school, we have a shared understanding about the knowledge and skills our young people need in order to take advantage of opportunities, responsibilities and experiences in life.

Staff are skilled in working with young people who have experienced significant barriers in their life and education: those having experienced trauma; those who have missed vital parts of their education and learning through not attending school and those who have been unable to attend school. The curriculum has been carefully designed to ensure that whilst it is broad and balanced and ensures that young people continue to have a core focus on key skills in Maths and English, it is also relevant to engage young people, it is designed to build confidence, self-esteem and enable young people to develop their own character.

We believe that our young people need a curriculum that supports their development as a person and equips them with the skills for life.  Our curriculum is underpinned by Personal Development and our core values which are designed to enable and empower our young people to succeed at whatever they set out to do.  Our curriculum is everything we do: our relationships, staff modelling, the academic work, our Tor Traits (characteristics that we feel young people need to develop to support them in life beyond Tor) as well as our work on careers/next steps. It is designed to give a blend of academic studies alongside vocational subjects which ensures young people are prepared for Post 16.

Research tells us that learning can only happen when children feel safe and secure.  Tor is built on relationships and we work in a way that builds on this.  It is only when the relationship is there, that they will take risks and open themselves up to new challenges. This can be difficult for children whose early life has been impacted by trauma.  We believe that there is far more to education than just looking at exam results as the one simple metric for success – we want to grow inquisitive minds and show our young people how their subject knowledge explains the world around them as well as giving them self-belief.

"We believe in people when they don't yet believe in themselves"

Many of our learners arrive having suffered significant trauma. Our students need to experience life skills and emotional development that will redress earlier negative experiences.

We work alongside young people and their families "To support students on difficult days and celebrate their successes on good days"

In the words of a Year 11 leaver in 2024:

“Tor never gives up on their students”