Thank you for taking the time to look at Bensham Manor School Website. We hope you will find the information and opportunities within the site both useful and exciting.

Bensham Manor School is an oversubscribed secondary special school situated in Thornton Heath North West Croydon. We are very proud of the fact that we were are a “Communication Friendly” school. This underpins the whole life of the school and our curriculum focuses on language and functional skills development for all our students.

The students who attend Bensham Manor come from across Croydon and occasionally from neighbouring authorities if their specific SEN cannot be met elsewhere.

Our school is a calm and productive learning environment where the staff team seeks to maximise the potential of every student and to take advantage of every learning opportunity. The curriculum is broad balanced and fit to support our pupils into the 21st Century.

This academic year we have achieved Flagship status amongst Healthy Schools in London. We enjoy welcoming visiting schools to our allotment and to observe a number of our classes cooking their own lunch one day a week. Just before the Christmas holiday we achieved a silver award for UNICEF Rights and Respecting. The School Council want to go for Gold over the next eighteen months.

All our leavers consistently are offered appropriate Post 16 placements in either FE Colleges or our own post 16 Department. Many of these FE places will be on “mainstream” college courses as our students will have met the entry requirements and will have the self-confidence as independent learners to participate fully in the adult world.

The school has developed its vocational and Skills for Life courses and also has positive links with a range of external providers. Enterprise Education and the Duke of Edinburgh Award is on the timetable for most KS4/5 students and this is the vehicle we use to enable them to experience the practical application of their learning and to gain the skills necessary to achieve employability. Our Horticultural Enterprise is a central part of this work and goes from strength to strength.

Our beliefs and philosophies of teaching and learning are underpinned by the values of collaborative practice. As a school our therapists and teachers work together to ensure that students have the best possible experience at the school. Strategies and interventions are researched based and targeted to support the needs of the students.  We believe that every child can succeed and we have tailored our curriculum to develop their literacy, employability and independence living skills.

Bensham Manor students are lively, thoughtful and always ready to participate in a wide range of curriculum and extra-curricular activities. They are a remarkable group of young people and it is an enormous privilege to work alongside them as they make the journey following the transition from primary school all the way to adulthood.

Phil Poulton, Headteacher