Staff apprenticeships strengthen SEND provision and enhance professional development at Polaris Community

Through developing existing staff’s further education, the Polaris Community is not only providing opportunities for staff but ensuring continuity of teachers for its SEND and SEMH pupils.

Most recently, teaching assistant Hannah Hattersley who works at Ormston School has started a Level 6 apprenticeship in teaching.

Funded by ASDA’s levy transfer, Hannah’s apprenticeship enables her to train as  teacher while continuing to work with the same pupils, maintaining stability for children and young people with additional learning needs, who will greatly benefit from consistent and familiar teaching staff.

This approach has been made possible through support from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Levy Transfer Service Team, which successfully matched Polaris with ASDA as a levy transfer partner.

Hannah’s apprenticeship started on 1 September last year and she is on track to be qualified by June 2026, she said:

“The apprenticeship allows me to put theory into practice every day in my own classroom. It’s challenging but incredibly rewarding, and I’m grateful to be able to progress my career while staying in a school I love. The support from my mentor and colleagues has been invaluable.”

From an organisational perspective, Polaris says the apprenticeship model offers clear advantages. James Brown, headteacher at Ormston School, said:

“Training existing staff to become qualified teachers allows us to grow our workforce from within which is brilliant for their professional development and for our young people too.

“Apprentices already understand our values, our pupils and our therapeutic approach, which means they can apply their learning with confidence and consistency. This benefits not only the individual apprentice, but also our pupils and the wider staff team.”

For higher education institutions delivering teacher training and apprenticeship programmes, partnerships such as this the benefits of collaborative, practice-based routes into the profession—particularly within SEND.

Hannah Hackney is the senior content lead for Polaris learning and development team, she said:

“The Polaris Community is deeply grateful to ASDA and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority for enabling this opportunity. 

“Their support shows how levy transfer partnerships can have brilliant outcomes for everyone involved and save what could be otherwise wasted funds. For us, we can not only retain great staff but support them to achieve their own goals through apprenticeships which makes us so proud.”

The Polaris Community is one of the country’s largest children’s services providers, offering fostering, adoption, residential homes for children and SEND and SEMH schools. The community became an approved apprenticeship provider in 2025 and is now supporting staff to upskill and gain qualifications where possible.