A Special Educational Needs (SEN) school which offers therapy dogs and art therapy for pupils alongside teaching has opened a new site in Clapham.
Octavia House Schools are a group of independent schools that provide specialist provision for pupils with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs.
The organisation works with pupils who have a Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan relating to their complex life experiences. This can include a difficult school history, trauma and adversity, or mental health and neurodivergence such as Autism and ADHD.
The Clapham site, which opened last month, currently has space for 10 pupils aged 11 to 16 and joins the organisation’s growing London provision.
Aous Mubarak, Head of School at the new Clapham site, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the school has received a “very warm welcome” from the local community.
Mr Mubarak said: “We’ve already had a couple of people from the local community approach the school and ask about the school.
“It feels quite wholesome at the minute because it feels like the local community has been quite supportive of us which has been fantastic.”
He added: “We will certainly give back to the community in due course and do something outside the school, whether it’s with our pupils or doing some volunteering work – we’ll do something nice as a thank you for having us.”
Mr Mubarak said the Clapham site is hoping to expand from 10 pupils to up to 40, and is taking referrals now for placements for November and beyond.
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He said: “We hope to grow it to a school that’s going to be just as successful as all the other sites.
“We’ve had a tremendous amount of success stories over the years and we want to be in close partnership with the families that we work with and our local community.”
The schools are described as ‘therapeutic’, which means therapists work alongside staff in classrooms, while pupils are able to access speech, language and communication therapy along with occupational therapy.
Depending on the site, pupils have access to other forms of therapy, including counselling, drama therapy, music therapy, therapy with dogs, art therapy and play therapy.
The Clapham school has a range of specialist and practical learning opportunities on offer, including Art, Design and Technology, and horticulture.
The school is the first Octavia House site in London to offer specialist provision for pupils from Year 7 all the way to Year 11. There are three other schools in Vauxhall, Nine Elms and Kennington for the ages 5 to 12, 11 to 14, and 14 to 16 respectively.
Octavia House also has schools in Essex. The organisation will be opening its first school in Kent in January 2027.
