About

A warm welcome to Pears Family School website.

Thank you for visiting our website. I am delighted to welcome you to our school. The Pears Family School is proud to be a tolerant and caring learning community welcoming students from all cultures and faiths. Our vision is to provide vulnerable young people and their families with a therapeutic, nurturing, as well as academically … Continue reading Headteacher’s Welcome →
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The Pears Family School is a centre of high-quality and innovative alternative education provision for children, families and schools across London.

  INTRODUCTION Combining the highest quality teaching methodologies with elements from the most up-to-date CAMHS practice, The Pears Family School eases behavioural and mental health-related blocks to learning, and provides learning opportunities that keep pace with the pupil’s ability to learn and achieve. Considerable evidence has been gathered to show that helping a child to … Continue reading Vision and Ethos →
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We aim to put family at the heart of Pears Family School but it is the PFS staff that work hard to create an environment in which students and their families can thrive. Our team is made up of talented practitioners, passionate about education and supporting children to succeed. Each and every one brings their own unique set of skills and experiences, contributing to a diverse ecosystem that can adapt to each student's needs.

Brenda McHugh and Neil Dawson are the co-founders of the school. They are contracted to provide Clinical Lead and Multifamily Therapeutic Support.
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Pears Family School is an Alternative Provision (AP) school specialising in providing short and long-term placements for students with complex needs. Our Admissions policy can be found under USEFUL DOCUMENTS on this page.

Who We Are Neil Dawson and Brenda McHugh (right and centre) are the Co-founders of Pears Family School (PFS). Both are Consultant Psychotherapists who have worked for over 20 years within the NHS developing the evidence-based therapeutic intervention which will be used at TFS. Stephen Taylor NPQH (left) was the Founding Headteacher of TFS. Stephen … Continue reading Admissions. Why Place a Student at PFS? →
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In line with the Department of Education's commitment to inspect all free schools within the first 3 years, an Ofsted inspection team visited the Family School in June 2017. The full report can be found under USEFUL DOCUMENTS on this page. The Family School received an Outstanding grade for their work which highlighted key outcomes for pupils including:

Behaviour Pupils’ behaviour improves rapidly when they join the school. Pupils were unfailingly respectful, friendly, polite and honest during the inspection. There were no incidents of poor behaviour. Pupils are confident that staff deal with any form of bullying effectively.  Academic achievements Teachers place great emphasis on teaching writing and mathematics. Work in books shows … Continue reading What Ofsted said… →
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The Pears Family School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all its pupils and adults who attend.

We recognise that some children maybe vulnerable to abuse and that children who are abused and neglected may find it difficult to develop a sense of worth and to view the world in a positive way. Whilst at school their behaviour may be challenging and we recognise that some children who have experienced abuse may … Continue reading Safeguarding at the Family School →
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Pupil Premium The pupil premium is additional funding given to publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers.  For details of our spend and impact including Covid Catch up funding see our report PE & Sport, Year 7 Catch-Up Premium The government … Continue reading Additional Grant Funding →
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Challenge Partners is a practitioner-led national network of schools that improves school performance through peer-to-peer challenge and knowledge sharing. Each school in Challenge Partners receives an annual Quality Assurance (QA) Review. The QA Review is a peer review involving senior leaders from other schools in the partnership. The review has a whole-school remit and focuses … Continue reading Challenge Partners School Review 2021 →
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Our governing body is made up of the following members...

Neil Dawson Neil has been a Governor of the Pears Family School since it first opened in September 2014. Neil is the school’s SEND link governor and attends the Finance as well as the Achievement and Wellbeing Sub-Committees. Neil is the Co-founder of the school and Vice-chair, as well as a teacher, mediator and Consultant … Continue reading Meet the Governors →
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To view our policies, please select from the list below:

Admissions Policy PFS 2021 Anti bullying policy 2022 Behaviour Policy 2021 Complaints Policy 2021 Curriculum Offer Online Disciplinary-Policy-PFS-2021 Equality Policy 2022 Equality Statement Data Protection Policy including GDPR 2020 Health and Safety Policy 2021 ICT & Internet Acceptable Use Policy Sept 2022 Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021 Maternity Policy 2022 Paternity Policy 2022 Parent … Continue reading Policies →
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