Schools in the area of
Teaching children in Cambridgeshire who cannot be in school
Arranged by schools in Cambridgeshire
Arranged by schools in Cambridgeshire
Separately, 510 children in Cambridgeshire were on no school's roll and not being educated anywhere else when schools last counted, out of 34,700 across England.
7% of new education, health and care plans were issued inside the statutory twenty weeks in 2025, against 46% across England. A child waiting on one is waiting without a timetable.
When a child cannot attend school, the obligation to keep educating them does not pause. It moves to the local authority. In practice the child is still on a school roll, still known to a head of year, and still waiting for someone to arrange something.
Where a child of compulsory school age would not otherwise receive suitable education, the local authority must arrange it.
Section 19, Education Act 1996
secondary pupil enrolments in Cambridgeshire were persistently absent, missing a tenth or more of their sessions, 2024/25.
That is 20.9% of enrolments in Cambridgeshire, against 23.4% across England.
Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England, released 26 March 2026.
In 1 Cambridgeshire school last term, the thing that got arranged was Purple Ruler. Across the authority we are engaged with 3. This page sets out exactly what that amounted to over one term.
Between 5 January 2026 and 31 March 2026, this is what Purple Ruler taught in Cambridgeshire. Every figure counts only sessions that actually ran.
Purple Ruler teaches children across England who cannot get into a classroom. The teachers, the timetable and the class groups are the same wherever a child is placed. What follows is only the Cambridgeshire part of that, and it is drawn from this authority's own record rather than from anything we say about ourselves.
Cambridgeshire does better than the country on attendance overall, which is worth saying plainly because it changes the shape of the problem rather than removing it. The children who still cannot get into a classroom are a smaller and more particular group here, and a smaller group is the easier one to leave without a plan. Every place counted here was arranged by schools in Cambridgeshire, each buying directly and separately from the others. The authority commissioned none of it, so the duty sits at the centre while the provision answering it is already running, school by school, out of sight.
What runs in Cambridgeshire is curriculum-matched teaching, SEND tutoring and academic tutoring. Named as they appear on an invoice: Blueprint is lessons built on the child's own school syllabus, so that nothing is lost while they are out of the room; Compass is one-to-one and small groups of up to six, built around SEND and ESOL need, at the pace the child can take; Distinction is aimed at a named subject and an approaching exam. Alongside English, maths and science, the timetable here has carried biology and PSHE. The schools are Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology, Riverside Meadows Academy and The Centre School. This is not a new arrangement. Most of what we have taught in Cambridgeshire happened before this term, which means the figures above are a slice of something longer rather than the whole of it.
This is also where being a national provider stops being a boast and starts being the mechanism. A class is not built around one school or one authority. Children are grouped across both, so a small number in Cambridgeshire who could never fill a class alone are taught in a full one, at their own year and their own level, by a teacher who has the subject. It is why a place can start in days rather than at the start of a term, and it is the answer to the question every authority asks first, which is how this can possibly work for the numbers they are actually holding.
The figure above worth pausing on is not how many lessons ran but who taught them. It is overwhelmingly the same teacher each week rather than whoever was free. For a child whose year has come apart, and who has usually had a great many adults pass through it, that consistency is not a detail. It is often the thing that makes the rest possible.
These are the schools in the authority that have brought Purple Ruler in for at least one child. Individual referral numbers are each school's own business, so they are not published here. They are in Cambridge and St. Neots.
Children out of the classroom still sat a real timetable. Across the term we taught 4 subjects in Cambridgeshire, led by the core three.
Schools choose the provision that fits the child. These are the four in use across the authority, and how many schools use each.
Curriculum-matched teaching that keeps a child on their own school's syllabus while they are out of the room.
One-to-one teaching and small groups of up to six, built around SEND and ESOL need, at the pace the child can take.
Targeted teaching aimed squarely at exams and attainment.
Sixty seconds on each provision this authority's schools actually use, so you can see the room rather than read about it.
Used for: EBSA, behaviour, medical needs, and pupils awaiting placement.
Your own online provision, running to your timetable and your schemes of work, taught live in groups of up to six. It is yours, not a place we sell seats in.
Used for: SEND and EHCP provision where a group is not appropriate.
One to one with a SEND specialist, at any time of day, on a schedule built around what the pupil can actually manage that week.
Used for: Pupils attending school whose attainment has stalled.
Targeted tutoring in a named subject, alongside a pupil's existing timetable.
The figures in these four boxes describe the provision across all our work, not this authority. Every other number on this page is this authority’s own.
After a lesson we ask the child what they thought of it. This is every answer we have so far, and it is a small number: 23 answers from 9 maths groups in Purple Ruler Academy between 20 July and 19 August 2026. They are not this authority's children. We publish it because it is the only thing on this page said by a child rather than about one.
Purple Ruler, student feedback survey, 20 July to 19 August 2026. Counts rather than percentages, because a percentage off twenty-two answers reads like a survey of thousands. Two questions are left out on purpose: whether the child had a technical problem, and whether they had anything to report, which is a safeguarding route rather than a view of the teaching.
Claire's daughter stopped being able to attend school at 13. She sat her GCSEs this summer. Claire is in Buckinghamshire rather than here, so this is a borrowed voice like the school account further down, and her daughter is never named.
Claire Ball, parent of a Purple Ruler learner. Three minutes on what changed, in her own words. Captions are on the picture throughout.
Chris Cassidy, Vice Principal at The Centre School. The school appears on the list above, and the account below is Cambridgeshire’s own.
The common wisdom is that the more complex a child’s needs, the less online teaching can do for them. A specialist school found the opposite. The full account is published, with their name on it.
Read the accountChris Cassidy, The Centre School. Five minutes on what changed for one pupil. Captions are on the picture throughout.
It was more cost-effective for us to go through Purple Ruler.
Bal GillLondon Borough of Barking and Dagenham
Bal Gill, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. The full interview, five minutes, on why the borough moved its home tuition to us. Captions are on the picture throughout.
Bal Gill commissions for London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, not for Cambridgeshire County Council. It is quoted here because it is the one commissioner voice we hold that is signed off for publication, and a commissioner's own words are worth more than ours even when they are somebody else's.
Provision that discharges a statutory duty has to stand up to scrutiny. These are the mechanisms behind every lesson counted on this page.
Every lesson is taught by an experienced teacher. This is school provision delivered online, not supplementary tutoring.
Across spring term 2026, 97.2% of lessons were taught by that class's own teacher, across the 4 Cambridgeshire classes that met more than once. A class that met once cannot show a change of teacher. A child was present for 100% of the 106 lessons we hold a register for, so this is a figure about who taught rather than who attended. Purple Ruler teaching and attendance records.
Lessons are recorded, staff are DBS checked, and safeguarding follows KCSIE. A designated lead is reachable throughout the school day, and when a child misses a lesson somebody rings home the same day.
Sessions are observed and graded against a rubric, so quality is measured continuously rather than reported after the fact.
Each placement produces an attendance and progress record the school and the authority can use as evidence that the duty is being met.
Every one of these schools found us on their own. That works, but it means Cambridgeshire is buying the same provision 3 times over, with no single view of which children are in it. An authority-level arrangement changes that.
Every page like this one proves what was delivered and then stops. This is the part a commissioner actually asks about.
Today every place in Cambridgeshire is arranged by a school, not by Cambridgeshire County Council. A school can start on its own, and the authority can commission directly instead if it would rather hold one arrangement than several.
Which children you are trying to place, which of the four provisions fits each of them, and what it would cost. Thirty minutes is enough, and the calendar below shows real times in your own timezone.
Each placement produces an attendance and progress record the school and the authority can both use as evidence, and a designated safeguarding lead reachable through the school day.
Nothing about attendance or exam results. Those belong to whoever arranged the place, and the figures here count lessons we delivered.
Every authority on this list has its own page built the same way, from its own records, with the same refusals about what may and may not be claimed. The nearest to you are Bedford, Essex and Suffolk. Reading one of them is the quickest way to judge whether what you have read here is a pattern or a coincidence.
Every authority we work in is listed on the index.
We can walk through this term's delivery, the schools involved, and what an authority-wide arrangement would look like in practice.
Book a 30-minute conversation at purpleruler.com/book · hello@purpleruler.com
Take the short version of Cambridgeshire instead. It is this page with the figures, the schools and the subjects kept and the long reading taken out, built for forwarding to somebody who will not read all of this, and it needs nothing from you.
Your contact for Cambridgeshire
Daniel Demarmels
Looks after our work across the south of England, which includes Cambridgeshire.
daniel.demarmels@purpleruler.com · put time straight in their diary
The photograph. Illustrative, from our own library. It is not a photograph of a child we teach, and no child on this page is pictured.
Our figures. Lesson counts are taken from Purple Ruler's own delivery records for the term stated, counting only sessions that ran and were completed. Cancelled and flagged sessions are excluded. Placement and school counts cover all Purple Ruler work in the authority to date.
Department for Education, Children missing education, Autumn term 2025/26, published 2026-01-15.
Department for Education, Education, health and care plans, calendar year 2025, published 2026-09-17.
7,494 (2024/25): Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England, released 26 March 2026.
This page reports delivery only. It makes no claim about attendance rates or examination outcomes, which are held by the schools.
Marks and attribution. Cambridgeshire County Council's mark identifies the authority this report covers. Purple Ruler is not commissioned by Cambridgeshire County Council. School marks are the property of their schools.
