Meadow View Farm School has created a successful system for helping children with social, emotional and mental health needs, including those who have suffered trauma and those who have been excluded from mainstream education.

Set in six acres of countryside in rural Leicestershire, the school has a farm and a forest setting where it nurtures, supports and develops independence and self-regulation in its pupils and, in some cases, enables them to return to mainstream schools.

Staff face difficult challenges and, according to headteacher Ryan Kilby, they act as “a sea defence in a coastal storm, who must brace themselves for what is thrown at them knowing that, in time, things will settle”.

He said: “Staff ensure they know about the children we work with, that they know what life is like for them, and this enables us to be there for them, no matter what.”

The school has been visited by educationalists from as far afield as Australia and Turkey, who have observed the school’s bespoke learning provision, which was established to meet the requirements of some children with very complex needs.

Part of the school’s approach is to focus on high expectations rather than school rules. “High expectations, if managed properly, can be as powerful and bring about greater success than the strict list of rules that many schools feel forced to adopt,” Mr Kilby added.

Meadow View Farm was a school where staff “have a real understanding of pupils’ potential”, the judges said.

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