Ivel Valley School is a coeducational special school, located in Biggleswade

Biggleswade

Biggleswade is a market town and civil parish located on the River Ivel in Bedfordshire, England. It is well served by transport routes, being close to the A1 road between London and the North, as well as having a railway station on the main rail link North from London .-Geography:Located about 40...

, Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The school accepts pupils from all over the Central Bedfordshire

Central Bedfordshire

Central Bedfordshire is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It was created from the merger of Bedfordshire County Council, Mid Bedfordshire and South Bedfordshire on 1 April 2009...

 area, and was opened in September 2010 on the site of Sunnyside School.

History

Sunnyside School and Hitchmead School were two separate schools for children with different levels of special education

Special education

Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...

al needs. In June 2009, Central Bedfordshire Council launched a consultation on the future of special education provision in the district. The consultation included a proposal to merge the two schools. This was due to Sunnyside School having more pupils attending than the school buildings were designed for, while Hitchmead School had a falling roll call, which has fallen from 87 pupils to 51 in the previous five years.

In December 2009, Central Bedfordshire Council confirmed that a new combined special school would open on the current site of Sunnyside School in September 2010, with most pupils from Sunnyside and Hitchmead Schools transferring to the new school.

The school today

The new school formally opened in September 2010 with the name of Ivel Valley School. Various modifications were made to the school site to accommodate the new range of pupils, while the old Hitchmead School site is still used for some educational activities by the school's pupils.

The school is currently for pupils between the ages of 3 and 19 years of age, whose special education

Special education

Special education is the education of students with special needs in a way that addresses the students' individual differences and needs. Ideally, this process involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials,...

al needs fall predominantly within the categories of Severe or Moderate Learning Difficulties

Learning disability

Learning disability is a classification including several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors...

. Some pupils may have additional medical, physical or sensory impairments or emotional and behavioural difficulties. All pupils attending the school will be the subject of a Statement of Special Educational Needs or, exceptionally, in the process of formal assessment.