How Our Multi-Centre School Operates
Healey Learning Centre is a single registered independent special school that delivers education through a network of small learning centres located across Greater Manchester.
These learning centres do not operate as separate schools. They form part of one integrated organisation, sharing the same leadership, workforce, curriculum, safeguarding arrangements and quality assurance systems. This distributed model allows pupils to learn in smaller, carefully designed environments while benefiting from the stability, expertise and oversight of a unified school.
Our approach combines personalised learning environments with consistent standards, shared professional practice and whole-school accountability.
One School Across Multiple Learning Centres
All learning centres operate under the Healey Learning Centre registration and function together as one cohesive school community.
Across all locations, the school maintains:
One Headteacher with responsibility for the whole school
A single governance and accountability structure
One workforce employed by Healey Learning Centre
A shared curriculum and assessment framework
Unified safeguarding systems and reporting procedures
Consistent policies and operational practice
Whole-school quality assurance and monitoring
Shared professional development and staff training
This ensures that pupils experience continuity, consistency and stability regardless of where they learn.
Each learning centre provides a specialist environment tailored to pupil need, while remaining part of the wider school.
Leadership and Whole-School Oversight
Leadership operates at whole-school level rather than site level.
Senior leaders work across learning centres through a planned programme of presence, monitoring and quality assurance. This includes curriculum oversight, safeguarding supervision, staff development and school improvement activity.
Regular whole-school meetings, shared monitoring processes and cross-site leadership involvement ensure that standards, expectations and professional practice remain consistent across all locations.
A Shared Workforce Across the School
All staff are employed by Healey Learning Centre as a single organisation, and workforce planning and deployment are managed centrally to support the needs of the school as a whole.
Each learning centre has a stable core staffing team to support pupils day-to-day, but staffing structures are interdependent and coordinated across the school. Senior leaders, specialist staff and certain teaching roles operate across more than one learning centre where required to deliver curriculum, intervention and support.
This shared workforce model ensures consistent professional practice, access to specialist expertise and flexibility to respond to pupil need.
One Curriculum, Delivered Across Learning Centres
The school operates a single curriculum framework that is planned, developed and quality assured at whole-school level.
Curriculum sequencing, planning, assessment and moderation take place across learning centres through shared professional structures. This ensures that pupils receive a consistent educational experience and that standards are maintained across the school.
While learning takes place in different environments, the curriculum, expectations and outcomes remain consistent throughout the school.
Unified Safeguarding Systems
Safeguarding operates as a single structure across all learning centres.
The school maintains one safeguarding policy, one reporting framework and one central safeguarding recording system. Oversight is coordinated at whole-school level, with designated safeguarding responsibilities operating across the provision and deputy safeguarding roles in each learning centre.
This ensures consistent monitoring, clear lines of accountability and a shared approach to pupil welfare.
Placement and Learning Pathways
Pupils are typically based at a primary learning centre that best meets their needs and supports stability in their education.
Because Healey Learning Centre operates as one integrated school, placement is not permanently tied to a single location. Where appropriate, pupils may transition between learning centres to support their development, compatibility or changing needs. These transitions are carefully planned and form part of the school’s overall placement pathway.
This flexibility allows the school to respond to individual need while maintaining continuity of education and support.
Personalised Environments Within One School
Our multi-centre structure allows us to provide small, specialist environments that support engagement, emotional safety and personalised learning.
At the same time, whole-school leadership, shared systems and common professional practice ensure that pupils, families and professionals experience one coherent school with consistent expectations and standards.
A Unified School Community
Although learning takes place across different locations, Healey Learning Centre operates as one school community.
Shared values, shared practice and shared responsibility underpin everything we do. The Apex Way provides a consistent ethos across all learning centres, ensuring that every pupil benefits from the same commitment to support, progress and success.
Why This Model Matters
Our multi-centre model enables us to combine:
The benefits of small, nurturing learning environments
Specialist support tailored to individual need
Consistent standards and professional expertise
Strong safeguarding and leadership oversight
Continuity of education and placement
This structure allows us to deliver personalised education within a stable, integrated and professionally supported school framework.