The Willoughby School, Bourne

Willoughby School

The Willoughby School opened in South Road, Bourne, in 1980, as a special school catering for students aged from two to 19 with severe and profound learning difficulties. By the year 2000 there were 65 students on the roll with nine teaching staff and 25 support members but the pupil roll was increased five years later when the premises were greatly extended.

Pupils come from a wide catchment area around Bourne and students also travel in daily from other Lincolnshire towns including Spalding, Holbeach, Boston, Sleaford, Stamford and Grantham and even Chatteris over the county border in Cambridgeshire.

The school is split into two departments, the upper and lower Schools and is constantly developing with the aim of providing each student with a curriculum tailored to their specific needs. Staff currently specialise in a number of subjects including autism, speech and language, multi-sensory impairment, behaviour, religious education, early years education and art.

The Friends of Willoughby School, consisting of parents and volunteers, provides first class support throughout the year through a fund raising committee and plans are going ahead to remodel a large paddock adjoining the school into an environmental area that has just seen the development of a living willow green room. The site also has a vegetable patch cultivated by the students, a pond and a wheelchair access route leading to a raised viewing platform.

In 2005, the premises were doubled in size as part of a building programme costing £1.2 million. The bulk of the work was carried out over a period of 17 months and enabled to school roll to be extended. By December, the number attending had increased from 55 to 72 and there was still room for further pupils. The expansion included the addition of four new classrooms, specialist suites and facilities for teaching the arts. Principal Adam Booker said that the work had made an excellent school even better. "The new facilities enhance the prospects of every child who comes here to learn", he said. "The people of Bourne will also benefit because we plan to make some of these facilities available to the wider community when the occasion arises."

The school has recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and continues to develop with new ideas annually and recent initiatives include the formation of a Breakfast Club and the launching of a web site about the school and its activities on the Internet.