Our Admissions Policy

Cleeve Meadow School is special free school which will provide highly specialised education for 120 pupils 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 will be particularly distinctive from existing local provision as it will work in dual partnership with its co-located mainstream school, Cleeve Park, wherever possible to maximise inclusivity of SEN pupils to mainstream education and providing access to mainstream teaching and shared facilities.

Pupil Profile

Pupils 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 pupils should have the ability to access the mainstream curriculum in parts.

Pupils with moderate learning difficulties will have attainment levels well below age expectations in all or most areas of the curriculum.

These pupils will be working at 3-4 years behind their peers in
Primary School. Pupils 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.

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 pupil’s local authority for a place at Cleeve Meadow School can be made following the annual review procedure in Year 5 (or from the pupil’s secondary school if it is not the expected time of transition). Full details of the LA admissions process are outlined on their website. Or can be accessed using this link: http://www.bexley.gov.uk/admissions

The local authority will send the school consultation documentation if they consider the school can meet the pupil’s needs and/or in response to parental preference. If Cleeve Meadow School deem that they can meet the pupil’s special educational needs, an offer of a place and a start date will be advised by the LA.

A pupil 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 pupil’s needs from within its resources
• The pupil’s needs can be accommodated, without adversely affecting the efficient education of the other children with whom the pupil will be educated.
• The school has been named in the pupil’s EHC plan.