New facility to support students with SEND at Bushey Meads secondary school

A new facility to support students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), at Bushey Meads secondary school, was officially opened by Hertfordshire Council Council’s Director of Inclusion and Skills, Hero Slinn, on Tuesday 13 February at an event attended by the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire and the Mayor of Hertsmere.

Bushey Meads School’s new Specialist Resource Provision (SRP), the Laurel, provides pupils with additional needs support to access a mainstream school curriculum.

The new £1.4 million facility for students with speech, language, communication needs and autism is one of seven new specialist resource provisions already open in Hertfordshire, creating more than 100 new places for pupils with special educational needs in the county’s schools.

This multi-million-pound investment in the development of new SRPs is helping Hertfordshire County Council address a current gap in the county’s SEND service and meet increased need in Hertfordshire for SEND support.

Support in SRPs is tailored to each individual pupil. The number of places are kept small, with higher ratios of staff, to allow for this tailoring to happen. Support will look different for every pupil, and the aim for each pupil is to help them develop their social and communication skills and confidence, to allow them to increase the time they are able to access mainstream classes.

The SRP at Bushey Meads School is already being used; it has the capacity to support up to 20 pupils with special educational needs and disabilities, providing them with specialist teaching and support, a safe, nurturing environment with lots of visual learning support and language adaptations, and opportunities for learning in small groups.

For full press release visit:
Hertfordshire County Council: New specialist resource provision supports students with SEND

For more information about our commitment to invest in special education provision visit:

 Hertfordshire County Council: Increasing Specialist Provision webpage