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Welcome to our School

Our children and young people are at the heart of everything we do.

A very warm welcome to Oakley School. We are the district Special School for children and young people from 3 to 19 years with a wide range of special educational needs located in our Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge (post-16) sites

Our Mission: Children and Young People at the heart of all we do.

Our Ethos: Work Hard, Be Kind, Have Fun & Stay Safe

Our Vision: To give all our children and young people opportunities to engage, explore, discover and develop their independence – to become confident, resilient, happy and well prepared for a positive and meaningful future.

At Oakley School we are ambitious for our pupils and offer a rich Creative Curriculum that is personalised and offers learning in school as well as in the community. Our skilled and dedicated staff team work very hard to make learning motivating, interactive, challenging and fun, whilst ensuring that all our children and young people feel safe, valued and self-confident. We promote “Skills for Life and Independence” so that when pupil leave Oakley School they are prepared for the next phase in their lives and have the best opportunities.

Pupils' wellbeing and engagement is central to all our decision making and how we structure our school and the interventions we use.

Our Wider Curriculum offers excellent enrichment activities including: lunch and after school clubs, curriculum trips and residential experiences in the United Kingdom and abroad. These opportunities provide pupils time and experiences to develop their life skills in new places and with different people in preparation for their next steps.

We work collaboratively across our school community with our Families, Therapists, NHS Colleagues and other professionals and external organisations to support and meet the needs of our pupils.

We hope that you enjoy your visit to our website, and that you find the information you are looking for. Please feel free to contact the school directly with any queries you may have. If you would like a paper copy of any of the information on our website, we would be happy to provide it, free of charge. Email office@oakley.kent.sch.uk

or call us on 01892 823096.

It is my privilege to be the Headteacher at Oakley School and we welcome you to visit the school so you can meet pupils and staff to experience our very special school.

Sam Perryman
Headteacher

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Oakley School & the Department of Work & Pensions, Kent working together and winning awards!

Oakley School was the first school to allow the School Outreach Team for the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) in Kent to trial their ideas to promote the "World of Work" and employability skills in Schools.  They worked very closely with Simon Bounds, Phase 4 Leader and other teaching staff on our Tonbridge site and together they created a programme which consisted of a three week course of activities. Alongside classroom workshops, the programme included DWP staff volunteers mock interviewing students. The last day of the programme consisted of a visit to Gravesend Jobcentre and Bluewater shopping centre. During the visits all the students were thoroughly engaged asking some very good questions to the staff.

 

In recognition of all their hard work and enthusiasm, the Team at the DWP won second place for the Head of Profession Award at The National Civil Service Awards on 6th February.  They were nominated for the Public Service Award which was presented by Sir John Manzoni Permanent Secretary for The Cabinet Office and Chief Executive of the Civil Service.  They also received an extra award for Head of Profession which was presented by Peter Schofield DWP Permanent Secretary and Cross Government Head of Profession.  This is a fantastic achievement as there were only 3 prizes (not bad out of 250,000 civil servants across all Government departments!). The Team were recognised for the inspirational work that that they do within schools and for forward thinking in the way that they work, especially with students with learning disabilities.

 

Our students got so much benefit from the experience, supporting their 'Skills for Life and Independence' that Oakley School has also readily agreed to run a pilot where DWP staff with disabilities talk to students about resilience and how having a disability should not be a barrier. 

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