The HOPE Centre For Inclusion
About HOPECFI
HOPECFI is a newly established Alternative Provision dedicated to creating a supportive, inclusive, and therapeutic environment for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Our aim is to provide high-quality, individualised education and care that enables every child to reach their full potential across all areas of development.
Key Benefits of Attending HOPECFI
Individualised Support Plans: Every child undergoes a comprehensive needs assessment, resulting in a tailored support plan designed to address specific challenges and promote holistic development.
Specialist Staff Expertise:
Our experienced team is skilled in supporting children with a wide range of needs. They deliver targeted educational interventions and therapeutic support designed to promote progress, engagement, and wellbeing.
Differentiated Learning Activities:
A variety of engaging and accessible educational experiences are carefully planned to reflect each child’s abilities, interests, and learning style, ensuring meaningful and inclusive participation.
Nurturing and Inclusive Environment:
We foster a sense of belonging through a safe, respectful, and accepting setting where children are encouraged to develop confidence, self-esteem, and positive relationships with peers and adults alike.
Focus on Life Skills and Independence:
In addition to academic development, we place strong emphasis on enhancing communication skills, promoting independence, and teaching essential life skills to prepare children for everyday challenges and future transitions. Celebration of Diversity: At HOPECFI, we celebrate each child's individuality. We are committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion, ensuring that all children feel valued, understood, and supported.
In summary, HOPECFI offers a tailored educational experience where children are given the opportunity to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally in a setting that is responsive to their unique needs. Through our person-centred approach, we empower children to develop the skills and confidence necessary for lifelong success.
Our Policies
Eligibility for Enrolment
A formal diagnosis or an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is not required for enrolment at HOPECFI. However, children must be identified as having Special Educational Needs (SEN) or Additional Needs and meet one of the following criteria:
Be summer-born and aged 4, with deferred entry to Reception; be aged 4 or over and currently enrolled in either a mainstream or specialist school; or be registered with the Local Authority as electively home educated.
Our Classes
HOPECFI is committed to maintaining small class sizes, typically comprising 4 to 8 children, to ensure personalised attention and meaningful engagement. Children are grouped according to their individual needs, age, abilities, and where possible, personal preferences.
We offer access to a range of specialist learning environments, including:
A fully equipped gym, a dedicated art therapy room, a technology room, a sensory room and general learning rooms for academic and skills-based activities
Children access these spaces throughout the day as part of their individualised programmes, designed to support their academic progress, emotional wellbeing, and social development their individualised programmes, designed to support their academic progress, emotional wellbeing, and social development.
No Place Available at Your Preferred or Specialist School?
If your child is aged 4 or over and awaiting a place in a preferred or specialist school, you do not need to keep them at home without support. By registering your child for Elective Home Education (EHE), you may be eligible to access Local Authority funding to enable your child to attend HOPECFI as part of their alternative education provision.
HOPE is the centre for inclusion.
Operating Hours and Provision
HOPECFI operates Monday to Friday, from 9am to 5pm during school term time. Children may attend for up to 16 hours per week, engaging in a range of activities within a safe, nurturing, and structured environment.
During their time at the centre, children benefit from:
Play-based and educational learning opportunities tailored to their individual needs, targeted activities and therapeutic interventions, on-site visits from professionals involved in their care and support, opportunities to develop friendships and social skills through structured and free play
This holistic approach supports each child's overall development, academically, socially, and emotionally within an inclusive and supportive setting.
Enhanced onsite services include:
- Physiotherapist,
- Speech and Language Therapists
Offsite services include:
- Aqua therapy and swimming
- Sport therapy
Our founder
About Aicha
Aicha brings a wealth of expertise and experience in working with children, particularly those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). With an academic background in Social Sciences and Business Management, obtained through the French education system and university studies respectively, Aicha began her professional journey in the field of education and later transitioned into childcare and early years provision.
Over the years, she has acquired a wide range of childcare qualifications and professional accreditations, reflecting her unwavering commitment to excellence in child development and early education. As the founder and owner of a successful group of children’s day nurseries, after-school clubs, and holiday clubs in Leeds, Aicha combines her entrepreneurial acumen with a deep-rooted passion for creating high-quality, inclusive learning environments.
Her dedication extends to supporting other childcare and education providers through childcare consultancy services, offering guidance in areas such as setting development, safeguarding, and inclusion. Aicha is also actively involved in child protection training and serves as a SEND mentor, with a focus on ensuring children receive the care, support, and safe environment they need to thrive.
Beyond her business ventures, Aicha is deeply engaged in the wider community. She collaborates with Community Interest Companies (CICs), charities, schools, and orphanages, working in partnership to improve outcomes for children and young people both locally and internationally.
Recognising a significant gap in Alternative Provision for school-aged children with SEND in Leeds, Aicha envisioned and established the HOPE Centre for Inclusion (HOPECFI).
HOPECFI represents the realisation of her vision: to create a nurturing, inclusive, and accessible educational setting where children with SEND are empowered to reach their full potential in a safe, supportive, and aspirational environment.
Our Owner
