New school opening in Kilmarnock for kids with severe behaviour

A new school is set to open in Kilmarnock for young people unable to stay within mainstream education because of their severe behaviour.

The ‘Common Thread’ education centre has a capacity for 20 young people, aged between 8 and 18, and will serve the Kilmarnock area for both day and residential pupils.

The facility has 12 rooms that will be used for a variety of activities including a gym, activity room, chill room, music room and IT.

There is also a general purpose room housing an Interactive Smartboard.

As with Common Thread’s other schools throughout Scotland, there will be a mixture of both residential and day pupils and they will be placed by the local authorities.

The schools is equipped to provide a full broad general education curriculum from primary to secondary education up to National 5 Qualifications. There is a highly supervised environment providing at least a 1:4 ratio staff to young people.

The children and young people who attend the Common Thread Kilmarnock Education & Training Centre, will have mild to severe behavioural challenges and all will have experienced a traumatic and or life changing event in their lives. Coming from a variety of backgrounds, they are all generally disengaged from school and not attending regularly.

Kieron O’Brien, Executive Head of Education, Common Thread Group said, “Each young person receives a bespoke and unique learning programme that is evaluated and revised on a regular basis. Education and Care Staff interact to ensure the best outcomes are achieved for each young person.”

During 2016/17 academic year, Common Thread Schools boasted an average 78% attendance for all young people, 100% engagement at schools between 2-5 hrs a day and a 95% attainment which meant that all 25 young people that are attending or have attended the centres achieved level 1 to 3 Curriculum for Excellence outcomes, while 70% of the young people achieved over 75 National 3 to National 5 units.

Julie Joseph, CEO, Common Thread Group said, “The opening of this new facility complements our two other schools in Dumfries and the Central Belt where our personalised learning programmes are achieving outstanding results, particularly as some of our young people are the most challenging you would find in Scotland.