There is something very special about a town where people take the time to look after those most in need, especially its children. Brentwood is particularly good at this – I’ve written before in this magazine about the superb charity Special Needs And Parents (SNAP), and Spargoland where hairdresser Ian Marshall provides a calm space where children with autism and high anxiety can have their hair cut.
A few years ago, a group of parents sat around a kitchen table and discussed the need for a school for children with severe communication difficulties. It is extraordinary what can grow from such kitchen table meetings - because now, only five years later, the doors of Grove House School on Sawyers Hall Lane in Brentwood are open and ninety pupils aged from 8-17 are happily enrolled and learning.
As a former vice-chair of Governors at a school for children with autism in London, I know it is vital for all teachers and education staff to understand issues around autism and other special educational needs. The Government has funded three voluntary sector organisations, such as the Autism Education Trust which has so far trained more than 130,000 school staff, and published new content for all initial teacher training courses that includes a particular focus on special educational needs training.
As I discovered when I visited last month, half of the Grove House pupils are on the autistic spectrum and have significant difficulties with social communication and high anxiety make it extremely difficult for them to learn and thrive in a mainstream school. Walking around this calm, well-ordered and spacious school, I could see why it offers just what these children need at such an important time of their lives.
The next stage for Grove House will be looking at how it can prepare its older students for the workplace, through onsite vocational training. Given the extraordinary amount they have achieved in the past five years, I very much look forward to finding out what they will achieve in the next five.