Harmeny Education Trust Limited

Who we are

Harmeny Education Trust Limited is a charitable organisation, providing a range of high quality services in the areas of care, education, outdoor learning and staff development.

Our core service – Harmeny School – offers specialist education services, both on a day and all year round residential basis, for children aged 5 to 14. In addition, we are looking to develop services for young people beyond the age of 14.

As a Grant Aided Special School, we work with children and young people with complex Social Emotional and Behavioural Needs. We provide services on both a national and regional basis, with children being referred by local authorities throughout the whole of Scotland. The school has capacity for thirty-six children, with referrals considered on a planned or emergency basis.

The services we provide are as follows:

Residential School Service

Within our all year round residential education service, we offer a twenty-four hour curriculum, with our highly integrated Education and Care teams providing rich opportunities for children to learn and grow within and beyond the classroom.

Over the time they are with us, our aim is to work with children in a highly therapeutic and nurturing way, to build on their strengths and develop the skills, resilience and behaviours to be able to return to the community. For children who are unable to return to a family base, we are equally committed to working with parents, carers and professionals, to ensure that they move on to a quality residential education resource, which is right for them and suits their needs best.

Day Education Service

Like our residential service, a ‘whole school approach’ is applied to our day service, with day pupils benefitting from all the on-site resources available. Our dedicated multi-disciplinary staff team work flexibly allowing the day service to operate during the core school hours. Support is also provided within the family home and community, according to assessed need.

We recognise that working with the child is only part of the solution. Working in partnership with families is a vital component of our work. Through building positive relationships, alongside strengths-based and solution focused approaches, we enable parents and carers to improve relationships with and contribute more fully to the care and education of their children.

The Day Service team aims to work from a child centred approach, working in partnership with parents / carers and professionals to maximise opportunities for each child to:

• Access education and learning in a positive way
• Make sense of their experiences to develop a coherent life story
• Experience successes and achievements throughout all areas of their development
• Develop positive and trusting relationships with adults and peers
• Experience a sense of security within their family base and educational setting

Staff work collaboratively to ensure that any transition from Harmeny is as smooth as possible, with ongoing supports provided as appropriate.

Harmeny Outdoors

Based within our dedicated Outdoor Learning Centre, Harmeny Outdoors offers a wide variety of adventurous and environmental activities, which are fully integrated into the curriculum, for all children who attend Harmeny.

This service, which is fully licenced through AALA (Adventurous Activities Licensing Authority), is also offered to external groups – and our team of five well qualified and highly experienced outdoor learning staff are able to individually tailor activities and training programmes to meet the needs of external groups.

Harmeny SQA Centre

Harmeny SQA Centre is a leading provider of quality training for professionals working in the care and education sectors. The centre is self-funded and continually receives excellent reports from the Quality Team at SQA.

As a learning organisation, we are highly committed to ensuring our own staff group have the necessary skills, qualifications and support to effectively do their jobs. In addition, through the centre, we are able to offer a suite of qualifications to individuals and external organisations throughout Scotland.

For more information, please visit our website.