St Catherine's School, Ventnor
 |
|
| Established | 1870s |
|---|---|
| Type | Non-maintained special school |
| Religion | Church of England |
| Headteacher | Mrs Rachel Weldon |
| Location |
Grove Road Ventnor Isle of Wight PO38 1TT England |
| Local authority | Isle of Wight |
| DfE URN | 118226 Tables |
| Ofsted | Reports |
| Staff | 100 |
| Students | 58 |
| Gender | Mixed |
| Ages | 7–19 |
| Website | www.stcatherines.org.uk |
Coordinates: 50°35′45″N 1°12′29″W / 50.5959°N 1.2081°W
St Catherine's School, in Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight, UK, is a non-maintained residential special school for children and young people aged seven to 19 years who have speech, language and communication needs. Many students have multiple conditions and a range of abilities are supported.
Some of the difficulties the students have include: ADD; ADHD; Asperger Syndrome; auditory memory difficulties; autistic spectrum conditions; dyslexia; dyspraxia (verbal/fine/gross); severe expressive and receptive speech disorders; and specific language disorders.
St Catherine's centre provides: specialist education; intensive speech, language and occupational therapy which is integrated into the curriculum; excellent residential facilities; comprehensive vocational training programmes; and life skills and opportunities to develop social interaction skills to prepare young people for their transition to independence.
St Catherine's approach supports effective learning; builds confidence and self-esteem; and reinforces the importance of providing wide-ranging personal development opportunities.
Each class has a teacher, a speech and language therapist and an occupational therapist who work together to plan programmes and agree targets. Additionally, occupational therapy assistants and learning support assistants work with students both within the classroom and on a one-to-one basis.
St Catherine's Home was opened in November 1879, on the festival of All Saints and, until 1984, was known as St Catherine's Home although it was locally known as St Catherine's School. It has been a School since 1915 when the cases of advanced tuberculosis decreased and the arrival of Sister Kathleen saw the transformation of the Home into a school for delicate and Asthmatic children.
It had been felt by many people that a comfortable and quiet retreat was required for patients with advanced consumption, who having come to Ventnor for the benefit of their health, eventually became too ill to travel home again. Many of these people were not in a position to pay for the best lodging and constant attention which they certainly needed at such a time. It was therefore resolved to assist them in their need, and soon the indefatigable exertions of Mrs Willan, a committee of gentleman was formed under the presidency of the Lord Bishop of Winchester and subscriptions and donations amounting to over £1500 was received. With this money a start was made to provide a home for these cases for a small weekly payment of ten shillings and sixpence from each patient for every necessary comfort. For this they were well fed and attentively nursed by the Nursing Sisters of St Margaret's, East Grinstead. Peak House was purchased for this purpose and alterations made. When finished it contained 12 beds in two wards, male and female with three special rooms for extreme cases.
...
Wikipedia