New faces at the Old Postern
The new head of a new school said hello to some of his neighbours yesterday (Wed) at the Old Postern.
The magnificent listed building was of course home to the Schumacher College for many years. Now it is becoming the Redwood River School, a private independent school for children with autism and other neurodiverse needs. Many will have been excluded from mainstream schools.
Locals were invited to come and meet some of the team on the lawn.
Chief executive Jason Goddard and head Lukasz Miecznikowski (pictured) explained that demand from parents led them to search for a Dartington home and the Old Postern, with its spacious
grounds, was ideal. Mr Goddard said: “We have been looking for a school in this area for some time. We work with students who are generally neurodiverse. That means they have a number of difficulties. This place will become a little bubble, a lovely little bubble, which means they feel safe and secure and then we do a lot of work so they can go out and be able to access independently what they want to do, college or work experience and so on, and we want you lot to become involved.”
Lukasz said he hoped that the pupils would be welcomed by the community and become involved in activities like gardening, sports clubs and cafes.
Redwood River School is linked to other similar schools like Dovecote in Somerset and Greater Horseshoe in Bovey Tracey, but is a separate entity overseen by an advisory board and Ofsted regulated.
Mr Goddard, who is CEO of both Redwood and Dovecote, explained that all the places will be local authority funded and most of the pupils, aged from 5 to 18, will be coming from up to an hour away. All the places – 100 after five years he hopes – will be fully local authority funded. Mr Goddard revealed that the school was looking to buy the building one day.
It is currently on a ten year lease. That aspiration was of interest to two of its closest neighbours, Martin and Sandra Crawford, whose forest garden behind the building hit the headlines recently when threatened with eviction.
Martin, who was among the small group yesterday, told the Pulse that he was still in discussions with Lord Triesman (chair of the Dartington trust) about extending the lease on the forest garden,
which has been established behind the Old Postern for thirty years. It runs out in three years’ time. “We want long term security basically. Dartington got quite a big shock when there were all the protests and they realised we existed, and I don’t think they want that to happen again. Ideally we would like a 99 year lease or more.”
Both he and Sandra welcome the new school. “It’s good that the building is going to be used. They seem really friendly and we want to work with them.”
Dovecote School in Shapwick near Bridgwater was opened in 2022 and has an Outstanding Ofsted rating. Mr Goddard said that he’d had around 100 enquiries already from parents for this new Redwood River School. All the pupils will have to have an Education Health and Care Plan which means the local authorities have a duty to fund their places.
The massive rise in EHCP’s nationally – 71% between 2018 and 2024 according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies – is costing 11 billion pounds but even this is not keeping pace with need.
It’s hoped that the new school will be open to its first cohort of pupils In January.