Ovingdean Hall School
| Established | 1891 |
|---|---|
| Closed | July 2010 |
| Type | Non-Maintained Special School |
| Location |
Greenways Ovingdean Brighton East Sussex BN2 7BJ England 50°49′04″N 0°04′32″W / 50.81778°N 0.07558°WCoordinates: 50°49′04″N 0°04′32″W / 50.81778°N 0.07558°W |
| Local authority | Brighton and Hove |
| DfE URN | 114676 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–19 |
| Website | www |
Ovingdean Hall School (OHS) was a special day and boarding secondary school for the severely and profoundly deaf children and young people including those with additional special needs. It closed in July 2010.
The former school's site is in a rural setting in the village of Ovingdean, near Brighton, East Sussex.
Many deaf and hard of hearing children attendeded the school from all over the UK and sometimes from other English-speaking nations.
It was constituted as a registered charity under English law.
Veteran British actress, Dame Judi Dench CH, DBE, FRSA, and the former British Olympic champion, Sally Gunnell OBE were patrons of the school.
Dame Judi once sent a special filmed message from a James Bond film set during the opening of the school's newly refurbished drama hall.
In 1788, Nathaniel Kemp – at the age of 27 – bought a plot of land of 350 acres (1.4 km2) in the centre of Ovingdean village. He built Ovingdean House there during 1792 at the cost of £2653-10s-0d (approx). The house was later home of stained glass artist Charles Eamer Kempe (1837–1907) and Thomas Read Kemp (1783–1844), the founder of Kemp Town in Brighton.
In 1891, Ovingdean House became a young gentlemen's school, which by that time was renamed Ovingdean Hall. Several extra school buildings were built by 1897. In 1941 the school moved to Devon during World War II, and the Canadian Army took over the Ovingdean site.
By the end of the war in 1945, it was sold to the Brighton Institution for the Deaf and Dumb school and in 1947 was reopened as a school that continued until the summer of 2010 as Ovingdean Hall School for the hearing impaired children from 11 to 19yrs.
During 2008, the Hastings-based film company Toaster Productions has produced a special DVD documentary film entirely about the school and its pupils, entitled "Ovingdean Hall School: A very special special school". During the millennium, a short film about the school was also produced.
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Wikipedia