NEARLY 60 new places for excluded schoolchildren are being created in the city.
The Educational Wellbeing Centre in Lenton will open its doors after Easter to 11 to 16-year-olds who have been removed from mainstream schools.
It will be able to take up to 59 pupils who have been temporarily or permanently excluded.
It means there will be 30 per cent more places in the city than are currently available at the Denewood and Unity pupil referral units.
Pupils at the privately-funded Educational Wellbeing Centre, as in other referral centres, will be taught core subjects including English, maths and science, while further vocational classes will also be on offer.
School manager Arthur Milanzi said his centre was another alternative to the current pupil referral units, where most excluded pupils are currently sent.
These centres have space for about 200 pupils.
He said the centre would ensure pupils either keep up their education until they return to mainstream school or finish their studies and take exams there.
"We are a qualified exam centre," said Mr Milanzi. "So we can take pupils and see them through their exams.
"We will be able to make sure that excluded pupils don't just get lost in the system and forgotten about."
The centre will take on pupils who have been referred to them from city schools.
Two schools, who cannot yet be named, have already signed up to refer pupils there.
The schools who refer pupils must foot the bill for them, with some cases costing thousands of pounds.
Mr Milanzi said the centre's offer of one-to-one sessions with pupils and including parents and families in their education, meant they went further than the other options currently available.
As well as core areas, more vocational subjects will be offered, with music and recording facilities available, as well as a hairdressing salon, a kitchen and a mechanics area.
The centre is based in the old Red Cross building in Gregory Street and Mr Milanzi and his team have spent about �150,000 kitting it out.
"When we get referrals, we will speak with the school, the pupil and the parents to determine why they have been excluded and what the background to this is," said Mr Milanzi.
The Lenton centre is the first to be set up by Educational Wellbeing outside of London.
The London centre was opened five years ago by Jaivanan Thangavalu and has been a success, with 100 per cent of temporarily-excluded pupils being reintegrated back into mainstream schools.
Mr Thangavalu pays for the setting up of the centres through his own private finances.
In 2008-2009 there were 5,580 fixed-period exclusions in Notts.
Barry Day, chief executive at the Nottingham Academy, said an alternative to pupil referral units was badly needed.
"I positively welcome the centre as we definitely need an alternative," he said.
"There aren't enough options for excluded pupils right now so anything that provides can only be a positive."
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