Hertfordshire County Council is the admissions authority for Haywood Grove School. For any information regarding admission or appeal please contact the local authority.   www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/edlearn/admissions/

Children join Haywood Grove after a Provision panel has agreed their needs and suitability for a place.  

The local authority's policy is to place children in the school able to meet their needs nearest to where they live.  Haywood Grove has a well-established induction process which starts once  a place has been confirmed.  Please see details below.  

Starting at Haywood Grove School

We always look forward to starting work with each of our new children and families.  The majority of children start with us at the beginning of the academic year, although it is possible to join us at any time.   

Once a child has been allocated a place, we begin our work   to establish a relationship with the family.   A number of steps are taken to ensure that this  happens:

 1. The Headteacher and Parental Engagement Officer visit the child and family at their home to share information, answer any questions and explain the support provided for families over 52 weeks.      

2. Sometimes, when it is helpful and depending on capacity, the allocated class teacher visits the family at home to introduce him or herself.  

3. The family and child are invited to come and visit the school to meet the staff team, some of

the other  children and, to have a tour of our site.  Often family members have already undertaken a speculative visit.  For those who are unable to attend we provide a video version of the tour.  

4. The school meets with or liaises with other external professionals that

are already involved with the child and family to get

an understanding of how best to support them. 

5. We visit the child's current setting to see how they are functioning and to talk to the professionals that know the child the best.  

6. We provide a series of transition sessions for new children to attend, which happen in the second part of the summer term.  The format and frequency of these is dependent on the number of new children starting and the arrangements made by our feeder schools for those who are leaving.   

7. We offer further transition sessions over the summer holiday so that our working relationship with the child and family gets off to the best start possible.  Whilst our Senior Learning Mentors are getting to know the children at this time, our Parent Engagement Officer does the same with our new families.  

8. The information we gather helps us to understand how best to make each child's transition to us as smooth as possible. 

9. An individual part-time induction program is set up for each child which usually lasts for 3 weeks, depending on the needs of the individual child, the time of year and staffing availability.  In most cases this happens in September.  During the induction period, the children follow our Discovery Curriculum,  a time where we build personal bonds with the children, discover their talents, understand their strengths and vulnerabilities and help them to understand how Haywood Grove works.  

10. After this period of time, the majority of children are able to attend full-time, alongside their peers.  

Occasionally, according to need, a child will remain on a temporary part-time program which will build gradually to full-time.  This will happen when it remains unclear where a child is best placed or when it is evident that the child will require a bespoke timetable that is significantly different from those offered within the context of a class family.

Identifying the most suitable class for a new child

Seven different factors are used to help determine the class family that a child  joins:

 1. Chronological age: we will usually attempt to place a child within a class family with similar aged peers.  Occasionally we may place a child outside of their age group if we believe that a different placement could aid their social and emotional development.

2. Peer group: we will try to place a child with a suitable peer set where we believe the child will have the best chance to build social relationships.

3. Child’s individual needs (EHC Plan): we try to place a child within a group where they will thrive in all

aspects of their development.

4. Space :we prefer to keep our class groups to a maximum of 8 children and therefore where a class family is deemed to be full we will not add another child unless we are confident that the child and the existing group will not be adversely affected.

5.  Staff experience : we  try to place a child within a group where the staff  have the necessary skills and

experience to meet the particular unique needs of the child.

 6. Information from other professionals, parents and the child’s previous placement:  we  gather information from a range of sources to develop a clear picture of the child’s needs and functioning within a school setting.

 7. Child’s preference – occasionally a child may express a strong preference for a particular class and

where appropriate, this will be taken into consideration.

The Head and Deputy Head Teacher determine the class family that each child is placed with, taking into account the information gathered and  any collaboration with other leaders and teaching staff.  All class families are staffed by a class teacher and usually 2 support staff and so, regardless of group, all children are able to access opportunities for small group, paired and individual work on a needs-led basis.