Admissions
Vision and Ethos
Cleeve Meadow School is special free school which provides highly specialised education for 120 students between 11 and 19 years old, who have moderate learning difficulties with associated additional needs including autism, speech, language and communication difficulties, associated social and emotional difficulties and sensory impairments.
The school is particularly distinctive from existing local provision as it works in dual partnership with its co-located mainstream school, Cleeve Park, wherever possible to maximise inclusivity of SEN students to mainstream education and providing access to mainstream teaching and shared facilities.
Cleeve Meadow School fosters a culture that is positive, collaborative and which values and respects every member of its community equally. The school builds positive relationships with parents and encourages their full involvement in their student’s education. The school aims to ensure that the students have the maximum opportunity to participate fully in society to enhance their life chances. Staff support students to develop the confidence to learn independently. It aims to be a centre of excellence for its students, parents/carers, staff, local authorities and the wider community.
The school’s ethos will be to minimise the barriers to learning that young people with SEND often encounter and provide a range of experiences and opportunities within a safe and caring environment.
To achieve the vision, Cleeve Meadow School will implement a curriculum with four key elements:
- An academic and ambitious curriculum
- A personal, social and emotional curriculum
- A therapeutic curriculum
- The extended and enriched curriculum which fosters skills of communication
Student Profile
Students will have an Education & Health Care Plan for moderate learning difficulties that may have associated additional needs including autism, speech, language & communication difficulties, associated social and emotional difficulties and sensory impairments. To allow the best opportunities for integration into mainstream education students should have the ability to access the mainstream curriculum in parts.
Students with moderate learning difficulties will have attainment levels well below age expectations in all or most areas of the curriculum. These students will be working at 3-5 years below their chronological age at their point of entry. Students with MLD have much greater difficulty than their peers in acquiring basic literacy and numeracy skills and in understanding concepts. They may also have associated speech and language delay, low self-esteem, poor working memory and processing skills, low levels of concentration and underdeveloped social skills.
A student is eligible to be offered a special school placement at Cleeve Meadow School if the following criteria are met:
- The school believes that it can meet the student’s needs from within its resources
- The student’s needs can be accommodated, without adversely affecting the efficient education of the other children with whom the student will be educated.
- The school has been named in the student’s EHC plan.
Admissions Process
The Kemnal Academies Trust (TKAT) is the admissions authority for Cleeve Meadow School and strongly believes in finding the right school for the individual and in all communications, will be honest with parents and the local authority (LA) in relation to this.
A request to the student’s local authority for a place at Cleeve Meadow School can be made following the annual review procedure in Year 5 (or from the student’s secondary school if it is not the expected time of transition). Full details of the LA admissions process is outlined on their website. The local authority will send the school consultation documentation if they consider the school can meet the student’s needs and/or in response to parental preference. If Cleeve Meadow School deem that they can meet the student’s special educational needs, an offer of a place and a start date will be advised by the LA.
All prospective parents are encouraged to visit the school at one of the open mornings where you will be welcomed by a member of the SLT to tour the purpose-built new school facilities.
Transitions are often difficult for students who have learning difficulties and it is essential to consider mechanisms and strategies that may make the process easier for the student. Students may be invited in for one or more transition visits to prepare the young person for the transition to Cleeve Meadow School. This process will be conducted in partnership with all stakeholders. During this time parents will be invited to complete consent forms and a home-school agreement.
Review framework
This policy will be reviewed on at least an annual basis and whenever significant changes to the systems and arrangements take place.