Montacute is a specialist school for children and young people who have Complex Learning Difficulties or Disabilities (CLDD).

This means that our pupils usually have more than one part of themselves that affects their ability to learn. These parts interact with each other to create a unique picture in terms of their individual learning needs and abilities. People with CLDD are unlikely to fit into a ready-made learning framework, and need a very personalised learning pathway put together for them.

At Montacute, we have skilled staff with different types of expertise who can collaborate together - as well as with external consultants where needed - to create learning approaches for individual pupils, based on finding out about that particular pupil. If we come across a pupil who needs us to have some knowledge we do not have, we will train ourselves so we can support that pupil.

We specialise in taking pupils who are at the most complex end of the spectrum, ie. children and young people whose ability to learn has been most affected by their difficulties and disabilities.

Here are some examples of diagnoses our pupils may have:

• Autism
• Communication Difficulties
• Complex Developmental Delay 
• Complex Medical Needs
• Emotional / Mental Health Needs eg. Anxiety / OCD
• Physical Disabilities
• Sensory Integration Difficulties
• Sensory Disabilities

Montacute can take pupils from the age of 2 to 19, or at any points in between.