Pinewood School

Pinewood School Academy Trust is one of the oldest special schools in the country. It began life as Kingsmead, a special school for boys, located in the old Hertford workhouse (now the police station).
 

Pinewood is a mixed secondary special school for up to 160 pupils with a range of needs including Autism, Down’s Syndrome and other conditions that result in a developmental delay. Many pupils also represent a range of other needs and difficulties including speech and language  and and/or sensory impairments.  Though the majority of pupils live within the East Herts area,  the school admits pupils from every town and area of the County plus neighbouring Authorities (e.g. Enfield and Essex).
 

At Pinewood School we aim to:-
• Identify and meet the special educational needs of all pupils.
• Ensure that all pupils are given access to the full range of curricular opportunities available.
• Provide a learning environment which enables all pupils to fulfill their individual potential.
• Prepare all pupils for their life in the adult world.
• Further develop in pupils respect for ways of life and beliefs other than their own.
• Enable pupils to enhance their sense of self-worth
• Develop in pupils a self-concept that reflects every aspect of their life influenced by their school experience.
• Provide an environment in which pupils can formulate and test their own values and beliefs.
• Provide a range of enriching experiences beyond the bounds of the prescribed curriculum.
• Ensure that pupils have a range of interpersonal skills that enable them to function appropriately in a social environment.
• Foster the development of personal and communal responsibility in all pupils.
• Encourage all pupils to take increasing responsibility for their own learning and life choices.
• Provide the highest possible quality of care.
 

To achieve these aims, we have developed a curriculum policy that provides the benchmark against which all our curriculum development work can be evaluated.