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Headteacher's Welcome

Woodlands School is a Specialist School catering for pupils aged nine to sixteen who have Special Educational Needs (SEN), specifically Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs (SEMH). 

The school has facilities for and can accommodate up to 84 pupils with EHC plans on a non-residential basis. 

Children are admitted from year five to year eleven and are taught in small groups with a high staff ratio, usually two members of staff to each teaching group; one teacher and one Special Support Assistant. The high staff to pupil ratio within classrooms is recognition that pupils coming to Woodlands School have a range of learning, social, emotional and mental health needs. Consequently, they require a significantly higher level of support to enable them to access education where they have previously struggled in mainstream settings.

Woodlands has a very strong ethos that places the child / young person at the centre of everything we do. We recognise that the young people we have in our school want to do well and want to achieve. We understand that sometimes they struggle to regulate their behaviour and we aim to support them through co-regulation to learn to manage themselves so they are ready to leave Woodlands and cope in the world outside.

All our staff have specialist training to support children and young people who have difficulties forming attachments to adults, have experienced trauma and loss and who have experienced, for whatever reason, a disrupted and unstable education before they come to us. We offer extensive pastoral support and a number of therapeutic interventions to e

Our curriculum is broad and balanced. We provide a strong academic curriculum to GCSE / Level 2 and additionally a bespoke approach through our ‘Hive’ bespoke provision, which includes elements of the academic curriculum and also vocational learning both in school and off-site. The curriculum is centred around the needs of the child or young person set out in their Education, Health and Care Plan and is reviewed frequently.

Our ultimate aim at Woodlands is to prepare our young people for adulthood and enable them to take their next steps knowing they have the skills for independent living and the knowledge and understanding to become healthy adults who can access employment and engage positively with their communities.

Julia Taylor (Headteacher)