Introduction
Cambridgeshire County Council intends to make prescribed alterations to The Grove Primary School, Campkin Road, Cambridge CB4 2NB. This will take effect from January 2026. It is subject to completion of alteration works to existing accommodation.
Background
The Grove Primary school was inspected by Ofsted in November 2023 and was rated as ‘Good’. The main school has capacity and has suitable available space to enable a provision to be established. It will be an Enhanced Resource Base (ERB) for students with an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as their primary need.
The provision will be known as “The Aviary” and offer 10 spaces for children with ASD.
The Local Authority is implementing a county-wide Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Strategy. It will address the deficit and demand on specialist support for children and young people with SEND and EHCP. They are looking to create new provisions and extend current provisions as required.
Proposal
It is proposed to make two distinct changes to the current school offer, these are:
- establishing a SEND provision, known as “The Aviary” ERB which will offer 10 places for students with an EHCP and ASD primary need
- changing the designation details of the school to reflect their SEND provision supporting ASD.
Implementation plan
As part of Cambridgeshire County Council’s decision-making process, a consultation on the proposed changes will run for a period of 4 weeks from Monday 8 September to Friday 3 October 2025. It will seek the views of all interested parties.
The Council will consider all comments received during the consultation period. It will then reach a decision on whether or not to proceed with the proposed changes to established offer. If the changes are agreed, it is proposed that it would come into effect from the spring term of 2026. This is subject to completion of alteration works to existing accommodation.
Have your say
The Grove Primary School will host a consultation event on Tuesday 23 September 9.00am to 10.30am.
For those interested but unable to attend the consultation event at the school a virtual consultation event will be held via Teams on Tuesday 23 September 6.00pm to 7.30pm. The online consultation Teams meeting details are:
The Grove ASD ERB - Online Consultation event - Teams meeting
Meeting ID: 378 184 387 680 8 Passcode: B2W5Hg3g
It will be attended by representatives from Cambridgeshire County Council and the school.
If you have any queries, would like more information or wish to make a comment on the proposal, email school.consultations@cambridgeshire.gov.uk. Please include ‘Response to proposal for The Grove Primary School’ in the subject title.
