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Special schools

A special school provides education and support to children and young people with an education, health and care (EHC) plan who have complex special educational needs and require their SEN provision to be delivered in a specialist setting.

If you have received a draft EHC plan, or are in the process of amending your EHC plan, you can request to place your child or young person into a special school.

Our maintained special schools

To meet the needs of children and young people with complex SEN, each school specialise in a particular area of SEN which broadly fall under these 4 areas:
  • communication and interaction
  • cognition and learning
  • physical and/or sensory difficulties
  • social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

The special school that a child or young person attends depends upon a range of factors including; age, special educational needs and the provision (support) described in their EHC plan and the school's location.

View our special schools

Here are a list of all of our special schools based by their need support. For more information, you should contact the school directly.

If you live near the border of Kent and Medway, you can also find your nearest special school on Medway's local offer.

Children and young people with autism spectrum condition (ASC), including asperger’s syndrome and autism, are likely to have particular difficulties with social interaction. They may also experience difficulties with language, communication and imagination, which can impact on how they relate to others.

Broad area of need category as referenced on your child's EHC plan: communication and interaction

Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which show themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour.

These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or attachment disorder.

Their behaviour will impact their learning.

Broad area of need category as referenced on your child's EHC plan: social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

Children and young people may experience a wide range of social and emotional difficulties which show themselves in many ways. These may include becoming withdrawn or isolated, as well as displaying challenging, disruptive or disturbing behaviour.

These behaviours may reflect underlying mental health difficulties such as anxiety or depression, self-harming, substance misuse, eating disorders or physical symptoms that are medically unexplained. Other children and young people may have disorders such as attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or attachment disorder.

Broad area of need category as referenced on your child's EHC plan: social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

Some children and young people with a physical disability (PD) require additional ongoing support and equipment to access all the opportunities available to their peers.

Broad area of need category as referenced on your child's EHC plan: physical and sensory

Severe learning difficulties (SLD) are where children are likely to need support in all areas of the curriculum and with associated difficulties such as mobility and communication. Profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) are where children are likely to have severe and complex learning difficulties as well as a physical disability or sensory impairment.

Broad area of need category as referenced on your child's EHC plan: cognition and learning

Children and young people with speech, language and communication needs (SLCN) have difficulty in communicating with others. This may be because they have difficulty saying what they want to, understanding what is being said to them or they do not understand or use social rules of communication.

The profile for every child with SLCN is different and their needs may change over time. They may have difficulty with one, some or all of the different aspects of speech, language or social communication at different times of their lives.

Those attending are diagnosed with a development and language disorder.

Broad area of need category as referenced on your child's EHC plan: communication and interaction