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Welcome from the Principal

St Mary’s provides fantastic opportunities for residential and day pupils/students. I am incredibly proud of our provision at St Mary’s. St Mary’s is a School and College where each pupil/student is supported and encouraged to reach their potential everyone involved in the school is ambitious for all of our pupil/student.

Specialist support for speech, language and communication difficulties and associated complex needs

We are a non-maintained residential special school based on the south coast of England in Bexhill, East Sussex. The school caters for both residential and day pupils/students aged 5 to 19. Since 1922, it has been our mission to ensure that children with speech, language and communication needs and learning needs receive the integrated support they need to enable them to achieve their potential and take their place in the community.

A total communication environment

St Mary’s is a total communication environment. This means we utilise a range of approaches that enable our pupils/students to succeed in their development of their communication skills. All of our staff, including those in non-child facing roles, are trained in Sign-Supported English. Our signing team provide assistance for parents/carers who wish to learn to sign in order that they can support their child at home. In addition, we value and proactively invest in communication and learning technologies.

A personalised plan for each child

In addition to supporting Speech, Language and Communication needs the school and college offers a personalised plan for each child to access a broad and balanced curriculum fully integrated with speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy, social, emotional and mental health support and opportunities to develop independence and life skills. Our facilities offer excellent opportunities to support individual needs and include a swimming pool, library, sports hall, Food Tech, Science, DT and IT rooms, physiotherapy and sensory integration facilities and therapy support rooms.

Supporting Independence

At St Mary’s, we promote working towards independence in every aspect of our provision. This means our school pupils and college students are well supported to become as independent as possible in their learning and personal development. Residential facilities Our on-site residential houses offer a ‘homely’ and supportive environment for pupils/students to live and learn for up to 38 weeks a year. There is an emphasis on providing a warm, welcoming and safe residential experience at the school and pupils/students are given every opportunity to do things for themselves wherever possible.

Parent and carer partnership

We pride ourselves on working closely with parents/carers. You will see, by reading the many parents/carers stories in this prospectus, that partnership working is very important to us. We champion the link between school and family and work very hard to involve families in their childs education here at St Mary’s.

Get in touch

The best way to understand what we can offer is to come and meet us and experience St Mary’s for yourself. We are always pleased to arrange visits for prospective pupils/students and their families. To make an appointment or to simply ask us a question, please call the school office on Tel: 01424 730740; email: admin@stmarysbexhill.org

Natalie Edwards

Principal

Natalie Edwards Nov 20