Learning Support - The Hive
The Hive is a suite of rooms which are staffed to support children in accessing learning. The additional support of The Hive staff is designed to minimise barriers to learning and support pupils to self-regulate building their confidence and independence.
BTF Sensory Needs Policy. Review Sep 2025
The Hive - the vision
Vision
- A safe, caring and engaging environment that enhances pupils educational and therapeutic development
- Ongoing reflection and evaluation of our practices, which are evidence based and guided by current research.
- Active participation of parents and carers, positive relationships based on mutual respect and trust, recognising and valuing the huge benefit that shared partnership brings to each child’s progress.
- Providing support to staff and pupils across the school, including resources, interventions and training.
The Hive is located centrally in the school and consists of various spaces:
- The Carousel is where Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy interventions take place.
- The Hideaway is a space designed to help support pupils explore their emotions and social behaviours. They know it is their “go to place” when they need time away to reflect and self-regulate. The Hideaway is a soft-play room consisting of a ball pit, hideaway pods and a platform for climbing.
- Cloud Nine is our multisensory room and consists of a variety of visual and auditory equipment such as a bubble tube, multimedia centre. This space is used for quiet 1:1 reading with a pupil, sensory stories, attention autism and relaxation and mindfulness sessions.
Interventions
The Hive staff are trained in specialist, evidence based approaches to teaching children and young people.
We believe interventions should be bespoke to individual children rather than applying a blanket approach. Interventions can be short or long term and vary from child to child. It could involve taking a pupil out of class for work with an outside agency (e.g. Music Therapy) or a small group of pupils working in class with a TA (e.g. Attention Autism). Pupils for intervention are identified through pupil progress meetings with class teachers, behaviour data and conversations with parents or carers.
Who We Work With
A key part of the Hive's role is identifying where intervention from an outside agency may be beneficial for a child and making the appropriate referrals. Below are some of the most common external providers accessed by our pupils, though there are many more, each matched to a specific pupil need.
Speech and Language Therapy (SaLT)
NHS Speech and Language Therapists (SaLT) are commissioned by Education to work in special schools in Hertfordshire. Speech and Language Therapists work with our children to support their communication as well as support our staff in developing strategies to maintain practice and progress.
The Collett School is supported by a Herts Education/NHS contract that provides us with 2 days of SaLT provision through the week. If your child is on the NHS caseload you will need to contact them directly for specific information about your child’s targets and progress. You can use the school's telephone number to speak to them, whilst on site.
If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Gray: anu.gray@collett.herts.sch.uk
Occupation Therapy (OT)
The NHS Occupational Therapist (OT) works with an integrated approach to therapy advising on interventions for named individuals that can be embedded within the environment and curriculum (e.g. using specific seating to help ‘ground’ a child, suggesting specific fine motor skills activities).
The Sensory Integration Occupational Therapist (SIOT) conducts more formal assessments of sensory and fine and gross motor skill need as required from this bespoke programmes can be developed to meet the physical and sensory needs of the students. The SIOT also advises on individual, group and whole class interventions that can be embedded within the environment and curriculum.
Educational Pyschologists (EP)
The Hertfordshire EP service:
- Gives training to staff at educational settings, giving them the confidence to support their pupils.
- Works together with schools in order to plan how to support a pupil's issues when current interventions aren’t working.
- Gives advice about Education, Health and Care assessments.
- Works closely with schools and other settings to support them with critical incidents such as serious injury or the death of a pupil or member of staff.
- Works to improve whole school systems and approaches to helping pupils with certain needs.
Hertfordshire EP service Contactline:
Contactline: 01992 588 574 : Wednesdays, 2pm - 4.30pm
This is available just for parents who want to speak to an educational psychologist.
Mental Health Support Team (MHST)
The Collett School works closely with the MHST in SEN Schools, an early intervention service working with mild to moderate mental health difficulties and challenging behaviours in educational settings. The MHST supports children, their families, and school staff, and is currently based in several SEN schools across Herts and West Essex. The service is ‘hosted’ by PALMS in Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, but is separate to the PALMS team.
The MHST helps to support mental health in The Collett in several ways:
- Workshops with young people or parent/carers or staff.
- Group based work with young people or parent/carers around emotional regulation and transitions.
- Guided 1:1 self-help sessions (6 – 8 weeks) with young people, parent/carers around proactive prevention and support for mild to moderate mental health difficulties and challenging behaviours
- A ‘whole school approach’ to understanding and improving mental health, which may include supporting the school’s mental health lead, supporting with the wellbeing curriculum, identifying mental health resources, training for staff, creating posters and displays etc.
- Signposting staff and families to appropriate support.
The team is made up of a Team Lead, Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHPs), Senior Mental Health Practitioners (SMHPs), Clinical Psychologist, Assistant Psychologist, and administrator support.
If you are interested in further information and/or support, please contact the team on the following email address mhst.hct@nhs.net or contact Anu Gray - Head of Interventions on the following email address anu.gray@collett.herts.sch.uk
Commonly Used Tools/Strategies to support Quality First Teaching
Makaton is a language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate.
PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) is a unique alternative communication method designed to promote independent communication.
Sensory Circuits are a form of sensory integration intervention. It involves a sequence of physical activities that are designed to alert, organise and calm the child.
Social Stories were created by Carol Gray in 1991. They are short descriptions of a particular situation, event or activity, which include specific information about what to expect in that situation and why
Intensive Interaction is a play-based approach to helping children develop early, pre-speech communication and interaction skills