Cherry Oak School

Welcome to our website where you will find lots of useful information about Cherry Oak School, the work we do, our rich and creative curriculum and the exciting opportunities we provide for our amazing students. Cherry Oak is a special day school for pupils aged 4 to 11 years who have special education needs and/or disabilities arising from cognition and learning difficulties including severe learning difficulties and speech, communication and language difficulties.

We are part of a hard Federation with Victoria School which gives us many opportunities for collaborative work and sharing of good practice. Victoria School is a community special school for students aged 2 to 19 years with a range of learning difficulties, including complex health needs and severe and profound disabilities. Also associated with the Federation, through a Memorandum of Understanding, is Victoria College, an independent specialist provision for young adults aged 19 to 25 years who have PMLD.

We are very proud of all our students and every child truly does matter at Cherry Oak and they are at the heart of all we do. We are fortunate to have a dedicated and skilled staff team, which includes teachers, teaching assistants, lunchtime supervisors, administrative support staff, IT staff, site team and cleaners. Transport to school for eligible pupils is provided by BCC Travel Assist and is mostly offered by National Express Accessible Transport (NEAT), who provide the drivers and vehicles.

We are a small special school which prides itself in creating a happy, caring and supportive atmosphere where every pupil is encouraged and inspired to achieve their potential and develop a love of learning. Our pupils are at the heart of everything we do. We make sure every decision we make is made by firstly considering what is in the best interest of our pupils.

Cherry Oak is a school with so much potential, a school which is completely unique in our approach to communication and learning. If we want to reach this pinnacle, which is what our pupils deserve, then we all have to go on this journey together by ‘working together for success’.

Our curriculum is underpinned by the development of core and specific skills. This may be the beginning of language development, or listening to sounds in environment, moving into phonetically sounding out words.

We have a focus on reading, utilising the Read, Write, Inc approach within school. We hope to develop pupils’ reading so they can gain information from words, signs and symbols in their environment, as well as developing a love of reading or being read to.