The School Offer

Holly House school is a Maintained Special School of around 43 pupils between the ages of 7 and 14.  All pupils attending school have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

The school is situated in a semi-rural site in Old Whittington on the northern outskirts of Chesterfield.

We teach subjects to the National Curriculum, and are lucky enough to have a fully equipped science laboratory, a food technology room, and design and technology facilities with woodwork machinery and a pottery room. We encourage a love of reading with two library rooms and we have a large gymnasium with a sculptured climbing wall.

The wholistic development of the young person is our guiding principle encouraging self-belief and self-reliance. To enable this, we place a high emphasis on outdoor learning with qualified outdoor education teachers and therapeutic support with interventions such as Lego therapy and forest school.

 For younger pupils the ‘Pod’ with a focus on Nurture and learning through play. This class has a higher staff ration and once ready the pupils transition to our Key Stage 2 classes.

Many pupils come to us due to their behaviours and we constantly look behind the behaviour to address the root causes, through a positive behaviour support and trauma informed approach.

Some pupils choose to stay with us residentially up to four nights a week, we also offer pupils an extended day facility up to 7pm including evening meal.  Our wide-ranging curriculum wraps around the pupils for 24 hours a day, with a social skills programme, life and living skills activities and a varied events programme that addresses social and emotional needs.  Pupils stay in one of eight bedrooms located on the school site. Ofsted have rated our residential Social Care provision as 'Outstanding' since 2014