Royal Schools for the Deaf
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| Established | 1823 |
|---|---|
| Type | Special |
| Chair | Tony Snape |
| Location |
Stanley Road Cheadle Hulme Greater Manchester SK8 6RQ United Kingdom |
| DfE URN | 106166 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Staff | approx. 500 (whole Trust) |
| Students | 109 (and rising) |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 2–25 |
| Website | www |
Seashell Trust (formerly Royal Schools for the Deaf) is a charity based in Cheadle Hulme, , Greater Manchester, for children, young people and adults with sensory impairment, profound and multiple learning difficulties, and profound communication difficulties. It is the oldest deaf children's charity in North West England and operates Royal School Manchester and Royal College Manchester, as well as children and adult care and residential homes including a supported tenancy.
The Trust's special school is called Royal School Manchester, the Trust's independent specialist college [ISC] is Royal College Manchester. In addition, the Trust also operates seven adult care homes and three children's homes as well as an adult residential care home, Griffin Lodge, and Domiciliary Care Services.
The original school was established in 1823 by Robert Phillips, a Manchester merchant, with the assistance of fellow merchant William Bateman. It attained its royal status by Queen Victoria in 1897, and the current queen is its patron. It first opened in Salford in 1825, with just 14 children, but it was soon deemed necessary to move to a larger site, this time to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Old Trafford, which opened on 21 June 1837.
It remained there until 1956 when a new campus was built in Cheadle Hulme. The school in Trafford remained open until 1982 and the charity now operates solely from the one site. The name was changed to Seashell Trust in 2008 because the former one (Royal Schools for the Deaf) was "misleading", according to governors.
The reference to deafness in the name of the school had become obsolete because an increasing number of the students enrolled had communication difficulties but were normally hearing. In particular, the Seashell Trust had developed considerable expertise in working with normally hearing autistic students. The deaf students now admitted by Seashell all have very complex additional needs, including visual impairments, physical difficulties and low general ability.
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