Harrow Virtual School

What is a Virtual School?

Harrow Virtual School (HVS) ensures that all children and young people in care and care-leavers have the opportunity to fulfil their education potential.

We support students from Early Years through to university. Our Virtual School is not a located in a building; it's virtual. Instead they are already enrolled at their respective education settings.

Many Children Looked After and care-leavers enjoy learning, and are meeting or even exceeding their educational expectations. Despite this, the received wisdom nationally, is that children in care and care-leavers have poor experiences in education. Subsequently they have very low educational attainment compared to their non-looked after peers.

HVS brings together all the education information about Children Looked After and care-leavers from Harrow as though they attended a single institution. Their progress can be closely tracked and supported. Interventions can also be targeted in a more strategic way. The school has a Headteacher, which is a statutory post within every local authority in England. The headteacher can support and challenge local authority departments, education provisions and other agencies to help students do better.

Since September 2021, the Virtual School remit has been extended to a strategic overview of Children With a Social Worker (CWSW).