Arise Education

Therapeutic practice shapes Arise Education. The organisation began in Whitnash in 2014, became a registered independent school in 2020 and changed its name from VLC to Arise Education in July 2025. Little Pinum near Priors Marston is now its permanent home, a 26-acre setting intended to support young people who have found mainstream education difficult to access.

Learning Loops, adapted teaching and the understanding that behaviour is communication shape the educational model. Compassion, belonging, respect, integrity, perseverance and joy sit alongside academic work, emotional regulation, confidence and personal development. The emphasis is on a relationship-based environment in which pupils can re-engage with learning at an appropriate pace.

Most on-roll pupils attend Little Pinum, which provides a lower-sensory therapeutic environment for pupils with complex needs. Whitnash, Shottery and Cubbington are also part of the organisation’s provision, and Arise became an exam centre in 2025 so pupils could sit examinations in a familiar setting. Its provision is built around individual placements and support needs rather than a fixed, one-size-fits-all curriculum route.

Arise has two routes into its work. Some pupils join the school roll full time, while others attend temporary alternative provision through a commissioning school. Places are considered around whether the setting can safely and effectively meet a young person’s needs, rather than through a standard fee-paying application process. It serves pupils aged 9 to 17, including sixth-form age, with placements arranged alongside the school and the relevant local authority.