New school building will change lives says Headteacher
Clarendon School, for children with special educational needs and disabilities, has moved into its brand new, fit for purpose, school building on the Richmond Education and Enterprise Campus in Twickenham.
Clarendon is a day community special school for pupils aged 4-16 with moderate learning difficulties and additional complex needs (including autism).
Previously the school was based at Hampton. However, the old building was small, cramped and did not provide the best physical facilities for children with additional needs. The primary school children have now moved to their brand-new site on Buckingham Road in Hampton.
The secondary aged pupils have moved to a new, purpose built, school on the Richmond Education and Enterprise Campus, sharing a building and some outside spaces with The Richmond upon Thames School.
Clarendon's part of the new building includes specialist rooms for design technology, cooking and nutrition, drama and music, art and design and science. Clarendon’s other rooms include nine supported learning classrooms (most with break-out spaces), a suite of therapy rooms, a multi-purpose hall and a cycle workshop. In addition, there is a garden space, including allotment planters, chicken run and a greenhouse.
John Kipps, Headteacher
"Our whole school community is delighted with our new building. Our old facilities were cramped and poorly configured. And, whilst we managed to ‘make-do’, it was still an adapted building. This modern building has been designed specifically with the needs of our secondary pupils in mind. Ranging from the facilities for those children who receive individual therapy, to a sprung floor in our sports hall for adapted sports and wheelchair basketball, the new school building will enable us to offer an enriched and bespoke curriculum.
“I am excited that we will be able to continue providing an outstanding education, in a building of equally high quality. I am convinced that this building will change the lives of our expanding school community.”
Cllr Penny Frost, Richmond Council Cabinet Member for Schools, said:
“For the first time we have a totally new, fit for purpose building for our children with special educational needs.
“The Council is committed to providing a first-class education to all children and young people. This is a school building for the future.”