The Hive

We are The Hive, a 50-place specialist unit provision at the heart of East Hunsbury Primary School. Our learners all have Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) with cognition and learning or communication and interaction as their primary area of need.

Why are we called The Hive?  

• We admire how the honeybees work together! They do this to ensure survival and growth.  

• A hive can describe a place where people are busily active. We are busily active every single day learning together, growing together and supporting one another. 

• The Hive links to our passion for nature, the natural world, being outside. 

• We have six classes, fitting perfectly into our Hive! We are woven together, working together. 

Our 6 classes have different colour names: 

Typically, these class groups will have between 7 – 10 learners in them and they will be grouped in age phases, for example reception and year 1 may be together, year 4 and 5 may be together. This will be dependent on our current cohort. 

We ensure we work as one school. The Nest, The Hive and main school classes come together to build relationships, learn together, play together and understand one another. All classes in The Hive link with a year group in main school. We want to help to develop good humans who understand, accept and celebrate difference and diversity and see the benefits of a fully inclusive society.  

Our excellent Hive team consists of:

• The Hive lead – non-teaching SENDCo and DSL 

• A qualified teacher in each class

• Two Teaching Assistants per class 

• A 2-day Family Support Worker 

• Our Rainbow Room practitioner (HLTA) 

• Our Behaviour and Communication practitioner (HLTA) 

All of us have a passion for SEND and a desire for all children to feel successful and shine! 

We offer a curriculum that focuses on “everyone getting what they need to succeed.” The Hive has its own set of curriculum drivers that weave through everything we do: 

• Communication: Learners will be confident communicators in their preferred form of communication

• Inclusion: Learners will experience opportunities that develop a strong sense of belonging whilst embracing diversity and individuality. 

• Independence: Learners will be as independent as possible and develop self-help skills for learning and life. 

• Success: Learners will be happy and confident individuals who access and learn from an enriched curriculum that meets their needs.  

For more information on our Hive Curriculum click here:

We want our learners to take risks and be brave with their learning. We want them to experience varied opportunities with specialist teachers, and we do this via our enrichment timetable which includes:

All learners in The Hive will access Forest School with a qualified Forest School Leader. Being outside, challenging themselves physically and creatively supports our learners strongly in our curriculum drivers of Communication, Independence, Inclusion and Success. In our Forest School sessions we observe learners engaging deeply, exploring their environment fully and learning through play with a sense of freedom and fun. Learners investigate, test and maintain curiosity in the world around them through our Forest School learning.

We believe in striving for success for all and we measure all steps of achievement and plan next steps using Assessment for All.

Assessment for All was developed by Fairfields School, a special primary school in Northamptonshire, and is now used widely for learners with SEND in our county. We have opportunities to moderate with other specialist settings throughout the year, helping us to be secure in our judgements and to collaborate with other SEND professionals. 

If you would like to find out more about The Hive please contact our school office or email Lucy Boswell at boswelll@easthunsburyprimary.org