The admissions process:

1

CONTACT US

Get in touch with our dedicated admissions team either by phone on 0330 055 2653 or email admissions@rmt.org to discuss your enquiry. Once we have a brief overview you will be asked to send through a copy of the young person’s Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) for the senior team to look at the suitability of your provision of choice.

2

ASSESSMENT

Once we have the initial enquiry/referral/consultation information, our schools and colleges will move to an information-gathering process to assess the young person via an in-depth questionnaire or application form. Associated professional documentation will be requested, and observations formed through various methods of contact.

Sometimes prior to offering a placement, this process might include a visit to the current provision/home or the young person could be invited to the school/college site.


3

OFFER OF PLACEMENT

Once the information-gathering process is complete and all parties in school/college are agreed that the school/college is appropriate, the admissions panel will consider offering a placement.

A letter regarding an offer of placement (subject to funding being agreed) is sent to parents or carers and professionals involved with the funding application and the local authority is informed.

Should funding be agreed by your local authority, we then work with all stakeholders to provide an effective transition into provision.

An offer of placement will be valid for 12 weeks unless otherwise stated.

Field 1

 css 7 fields box – fix lower padding

Seven Fields of Practice

Practically applied principles, known as the Seven Fields of Practice, underpin PSTE and guide each student’s journey.

Together, the Seven Fields of Practice form an educational continuum that helps to structure the student journey. The Seven Fields of Practice are subject to research up to Master’s degree and PhD level, and inform staff training across the Trust.

The Seven Fields of Practice contribute to Ruskin Mill Trust’s vision that each individual has the potential to shape their own future through experiencing meaningful relationships with universe, earth and people.

Students at Ruskin Mill College performing the play 'Arthur'
The fields of practice are brought together in a student-centred curriculum

Field 1

Genius Loci / Spirit of Place

Genius Loci recognises the heritage and uniqueness of place. In each educational provision, we work holistically with the landscape, its geology, flora and fauna, and history of human activity, to develop specialist curriculum activities that are deeply connected to the locality.

Field 2

Practical Skills

The field of Practical Skills, founded on craft and land-based activities, is designed to support students’ cognitive, emotional and physical development, and embed functional skills. Through sourcing material (mineral, plant, animal) from the place, forming it with their own hands and making something that is valued by others, the students reconnect to the earth, themselves and their community.

Field 3

Biodynamic Ecology

Biodynamic Ecology recognises that each farm and garden is an integrated dynamic organism that responds to wider, more subtle, cosmic influences. Students follow a seed-to-table curriculum that celebrates nature’s rhythms and encourages them to eat healthily. They start to understand different kinds of connection.

Field 4

Therapeutic Education

The student journey at Ruskin Mill Trust places an emphasis on facilitating wholeness where there is fragmentation, and movement where there is stagnation. This transformative approach to education is underpinned by human phasic development and applied sensory integration. By engaging with age-appropriate activities, students re-step missed developmental opportunities.

Field 5

Holistic Support and Care

The field of Holistic Support and Care stands behind our 24-hour educational curriculum and, in particular, the life of students in their residential provision. It is here that students actively engage in homemaking and master basic living skills. These learning experiences provide support for the development of healthy life processes and independence.

Field 6

Holistic Medicine

Ruskin Mill Trust offers a range of holistic therapies to support students’ health and wellbeing in accordance with the whole human being approach. The field of Holistic Medicine is promoted through collaboration between a multi-disciplinary team of practitioners, support staff, doctors and nurses. At the heart of this field is our practice of the Student Study.

Field 7

Transformative Leadership

Ruskin Mill Trust acknowledges and appreciates multiple intelligences, such as emotional and aesthetic intelligence, and situational awareness. To support the student journey towards self-generated conscious action, staff consciously role model how to have positive relationships with other human beings as well as with the environment.