Ellesmere College

Welcome to Ellesmere College, Post-16. Our Post-16 provision caters for 60 students who we work with to prepare them for adulthood by providing meaningful experiences, work-related experiences and community engagement. 

Our new Post-16 centre is planned to open in the near future which will provide a purpose-built space for our young people to thrive. 

We are fortunate to have many links with organisations in the community of Leicester. During their time in Post 16 students will visit the local library at the Brite Centre, local cafes and the city centre to increase their confidence in accessing local destinations.

We also host visits from the DWP,  Learning Diability Nurses, Leicester Tigers outreach and VALUES mentors. Our desire is to help students identify passions and past times they can enjoy when they leave Ellesmere and to feel comfortable accessing whatever support is needed in later life. 

Our school motto, ‘be your best, be happy, believe’ which was written by staff and students demonstrates our commitment to personalisation, emotional wellbeing and mental health. Our comprehensive intervention programme takes a holistic approach to learning, and supports students in areas such as communication, emotional wellbeing, confidence and developing self-regulation tools.

We provide a range of work experience opportunities in Post 16 which students can access on site or off site and as a class or individually depending on their level of independence. Some students will go onto join our DFN Project Search program whilst at Ellesmere. This is a program focused on supporting young people with SEN into employment and we have partnered with University Hospitals of Leicester, Voco Hotel and Leicester University to make this happen.

We have now seen a number of young people from Ellesmere progress onto employment. Other students graduate from Ellesmere and following additional years at college have then gone onto access DFN Project Search program through other colleges in Leicester.

We welcome visits to our DFN Project Search sites at any point in a students career. In fact its often beneficial to start considering this option well before a young person enters Post 16 so it doesn't feel such a new option to them when they enter Post 16. 

Sally Gough
Head of Centre