The Avenue School Special Needs Academy is a positive and happy day special school for young people from the age of 2 – 19 with complex Special Educational Needs.

The Avenue School pledges to deliver a relevant, tailored, and meaningful curriculum through an attitude of PACE:

Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (Dan Hughes,1997)

Admissions Statement

November 2025

The Avenue Special Needs Academy is a day special school for children aged 2 - 19 with complex Special Educational Needs. All of our pupils have an Education and Health Care Plan. All our pupils will have at least a Severe Learning Difficulty and some will have Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), Autism, speech and language needs, physical needs, and a combination of the above. We provide a bespoke and meaningful curriculum for all pupils, which considers their successes and interests as well as their barriers to learning. Our curriculum offer runs parallel with our school ethos of PACE – Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity, and Empathy. We do not have the expertise to support young people whose main barrier to learning is their Social, Emotional, or Mental Health (SEMH). Adhering to our legal duty, we are continuing to receive consultations for places – all requests for consultations must go through Local Authority SEND teams and not our admin staff.

We are currently significantly over-capacity, with no spaces for new pupils in any year groups for the current academic year (2025-26) or next year (2026-27).

The need for places has grown considerably and we are experiencing a high volume of consultations and tribunals. We are now pausing prospective parent tours, extending invitations only to parents/carers with children who have been offered a place already and will be transitioning to our school. To continue to support young people with SEND in our community, we are establishing outreach programmes, working alongside local authorities and schools, but we are unable to offer permanent education for new pupils for the foreseeable future.

We understand this may be frustrating and we regret this is not an easier process. If you would like to talk to a member of our team, please get in touch.