Our Designation

Provision Designation

Meadowfield Special School is the District Special School for Swale meeting the needs of pupils with profound, severe and complex special educational needs (PSCN). Honey Bees pre-school Specialist Intervention unit admits children from 3 years of age. Pupils transition to Meadowfield or other provisions in the Reception year (the year in which the pupil becomes 5 years of age). Pupils can remain at Meadowfield throughout their education Years R to Year 11 (ages 5 through to 16). At 6th Form transition pupils can move into the Meadowfield 6th Form or move onto to other provisions at the local colleges.

Links to the full admission criteria can be found in the Admissions section, Kent County Council summarised the needs of pupils with profound, severe and complex needs as follows:

Children with profound and severe needs will exhibit many of the following:

  • A severe developmental delay or severe learning difficulty (e.g. up to 0.1 percentile)
  • An uneven profile of abilities with the majority of abilities within the severe learning difficulties level.
  • Prediction of a high level of dependency throughout his/her life.
  • Severe under-functioning in most aspects of school and social life, with some abilities at a higher level.
  • Requirement for multi-agency input from both Health and Social Services with access to after-school respite care.

Children with complex needs will have:

  • An uneven profile with higher levels of attainment and functioning in some curricular areas.
  • These pupils will have ‘complex’ needs which are the result of two or more combinations of need in addition to cognition and learning (i.e. physical, sensory, medical, communication and interaction etc) and will experience considerable difficulty in accessing mainstream school.