The Hollies Special School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

The Hollies is a special day school, maintained by Cardiff City Council. Currently, it provides education for 102 pupils aged from 4 to 11 years.

Nearly all pupils have statements of special educational needs. Most pupils who attend the school have a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). A very few pupils have additional difficulties relating to speech, language and communication.

Pupils are taught in classes that are broadly determined by their needs, ability and age, with considerable variation in individual starting points. For this reason, it is not appropriate to compare standards that pupils achieve at the school with national averages. All pupils live in the Cardiff area.

A minority are from variou...s ethnic backgrounds with around 11 different home languages. Currently, there are no pupils with looked after status. A very few pupils speak Welsh as their first language at home.

Around 35.5% of pupils receive free school meals. This is lower than the all Wales average of 42.

3% for special schools. The school, commissioned by the local authority, provides an outreach service to all schools in Cardiff. The 'Social Communication Interaction and Play' service (SCIP) provides support, advice, and guidance to mainstream schools on implementing appropriate strategies in working with pupils with autism in mainstream settings.

The school also provides early years support where there is some cross over in provision for pupils in their homes and on transition into the school. This is the 'Early Bird' project. The school also provide support through a project called 'APPEAL' for parents of pupils with English as an Additional Language.

The school is a curriculum pioneer school and is working with the Welsh Government and other schools to take forward developments relating to the curriculum. The headteacher has been in post since September 2017. The school was last inspected in May 2013.