About Our School
The Grove was opened in 2018 and moved to its newly-refurbished school in September 2019. The school is part of the Heartlands Community Trust family. It provides 104 places for boys and girls in the age range 5–19 years, with a primary diagnosis of autism, who are working either below, or at, age-related expectations. For a child to be admitted, the school must be named, by a local authority, in the child’s education health and care plan (EHCP). Parents wishing their children to benefit from our provision should ask their local authority to name our school in their child’s EHCP.
The school has four distinct departments: Primary, Secondary complex needs, Secondary high-functioning, and a Post-16 provision for complex learners. Post 16 learners will be relocating to a small cottage on site and we will be opening a training kitchen and café in the autumn. This enables us to open 2 new classes on our main school site and offer an additional 21 places to children and young people within the community.
Each department shares the wider vision of the school:
• Academic learning that follows the National Curriculum but is tailored to meet individual needs and builds on strengths and interests.
• Development of core skills in literacy and numeracy, with a focus on accredited courses and qualifications for older students.
• A PHSCE and Life skills curriculum that builds on the development of practical and social skills for life, including independent living skills.
• Therapeutic interventions integrated within the curriculum to support the needs of individuals, focusing on personal, social and emotional development.
• An enrichment curriculum that builds on experiences in the community, including work experiences, extra-curricular activities and mainstream integration where appropriate.
• Tailored post-16 provision that will plan and support each student’s readiness to move to the next stage of their learning, including college, further study and the transition to adulthood.
Our aim is to ensure the whole need of each student is met through a comprehensive programme that addresses their academic learning whilst also supporting the difficulties that arise from their autism. This will be achieved through the delivery of a broad and balanced curriculum that is:
• Highly personalised, inclusive and tailored to meet the individual.
• Differentiated, largely topic-based and language rich, that will allow our students to learn with consistency while encountering new skills.
• Age and needs appropriate.
• Within the framework of the National Curriculum, appropriate for the students.
• Focused on providing learning for life and independence skills.
• Designed to provide qualifications and meaningful experiences for the world of work.
• Supported through the integration and collaboration of therapies and interventions via a multi-disciplinary working approach.
• Centred on personal learning programmes that measure success linked to outcomes of each student’s EHCP.
• Flexible and responsive to outcomes of provision mapping.
The school’s teaching and support services will be staffed by a specialist team with a focus on sharing excellent practice
within the school, and with organisations and centres that have a specialist interest in research and development of best practice.
The skills and expertise within the Heartlands Trust family will ensure, wherever possible, inclusive practice that will benefit all students.
