"Our child is developing into a fantastic young person who now has a chance of enjoying and developing his adulthood, all thanks to the school and its dedicated staff"
Following the School’s purchase of adjacent land this year, work began in July 2009 on our new Residential Teaching College for our post-16 students. We have planned a setting with an age-appropriate environment which will provide real-life opportunities to develop social and independence skills.
The new college will provide six more residential beds and two teaching classrooms. Careful consideration has been given to lighting, sensory issues, colours, layout and to what motivates our students; these are vitally important in fostering an environment conducive to learning.
Consultation with parents highlighted the need for this extended environment and for several years now we have received more requests for places post-16 than our current facilities allow. Talking with local authorities also highlighted the lack of post-16 provision locally for this particular group of students and we support our local authorities’ provision in this way. We were fortunate enough to receive a grant from the Department of Children, Schools and Families of £465,913 towards the project. Our May Charity Ball raised over £3,000 and we intend to seek further funding from other organisations and charitable trusts to support this new development. It is reassuring to know that the government supports this venture and is committed to improving provision nationally for children and young people with autism. (To read more about the Autism Bill 2009 please go to http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/autism.html).
The building work is planned over twenty four weeks with an expected completion date of mid-December 2009 and a planned handover date of January 2010. The project will continue into 2010, when students will be involved in the design and planning of the external areas and in furnishing their common room.
We feel it is important that the students are fully involved in the final stages of the new building by taking part in the selection and purchase of the equipment and furnishings and finally in the naming of their café and the building itself.
Students have been kept fully aware of the works on site and have received information about keeping themselves safe during the construction. A competition was held in the summer term 2009, to design a poster highlighting the issues around site safety, the winners from each category received an iPod ‘Shuffle’ and runners-up received HMV gift vouchers.
This is an exciting project for our School, and we are grateful to those benefactors who have already made donations. Our work is not done yet, so you would like to make a gift or donation, then please contact the school.
01925 224899
Following the School’s purchase of adjacent land this year, work began in July 2009 on our new Residential Teaching College for our post-16 students. We have planned a setting with an age-appropriate environment which will provide real-life opportunities to develop social and independence skills.
Consultation with parents highlighted the need for this extended environment and for several years now we have received more requests for places post-16 than our current facilities allow. Talking with local authorities also highlighted the lack of post-16 provision locally for this particular group of students and we support our local authorities’ provision in this way. We were fortunate enough to receive a grant from the Department of Children, Schools and Families of £465,913 towards the project. Our May Charity Ball raised over £3,000 and we intend to seek further funding from other organisations and charitable trusts to support this new development. It is reassuring to know that the government supports this venture and is committed to improving provision nationally for children and young people with autism. (To read more about the Autism Bill 2009 please go to 
We feel it is important that the students are fully involved in the final stages of the new building by taking part in the selection and purchase of the equipment and furnishings and finally in the naming of their café and the building itself.