Sunnydown School is a

special Special or specials may refer to: Policing * Specials, Ulster Special Constabulary, the Northern Ireland police force * Specials, Special Constable, an auxiliary, volunteer, or temporary; police worker or police officer * Special police forces ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

situated in the

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

Caterham Caterham () is a town in the Tandridge (district), Tandridge district of Surrey, England. The town is administratively divided into two: Caterham on the Hill, and Caterham Valley, which includes the main town centre in the middle of a dry valle ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England. Founded in 1949, it is the second-oldest special school in Surrey. The school educates students aged 11 to 18.

Organisation

The school is classed as a community special school and has an average intake of 20 students annually. It is located in the civil parish of Caterham on the Hill and right next to

de Stafford School de Stafford School is a mixed secondary school located in Caterham, Surrey, England. The school educates students from ages 11 to 16. Organisation de Stafford is close to the centre of the scattered town of Caterham, bordering on two sides t ...

. It also touches the southwestern part of the

London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon () is a London borough, borough in South London, part of Outer London. It covers an area of and had a population of 397,741 as of mid-2023, making it the most populous London borough. It is London's southernmost ...

. The school acts as a stepping stone from

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

further education colleges Further education (often abbreviated FE) in the United Kingdom and Ireland is additional education to that received at secondary school that is distinct from the higher education (HE) offered in universities and other academic institutions. It ...

. Students at Sunnydown take 8

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

exams along with the

ASDAN ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) is a UK education charity and awarding organisation based in Bristol. It develops and accredits programmes and qualifications aimed at supporting learners in developing personal, social, ...

bronze award in Year 10 onwards and

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (commonly abbreviated DofE) is a youth awards programme founded in the United Kingdom in 1956 by the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, which has since expanded to 144 nations. The awards recognise adolescents and ...

. Pupils at the school follow a set of guidelines set by the staff in order to develop their independence and also prepare them for higher education and potential employment. Around half of the students at the school attended the boarding side of the school before boarding ended in 2021.

Guildford origins

Sunnydown School was originally founded in 1949 on the

Hog's Back The Hog's Back is a hilly ridge, part of the North Downs in Surrey, England. It runs between Farnham, Surrey, Farnham in the west and Guildford in the east. Toponym Compared with the main part of the Downs to the east of it, it is a narrow el ...

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

, before relocating to Portley House in Caterham in 1983.

Portley House

The school's main building, Portley House, was built in 1856 for a wine merchant, Charles Dingwall. Since then the building has had various extensions added, and in 1951 it became a school for the

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

named Portley House Boarding Special School. Recent additions to the school include a new Science Room in 2001, a new gym and practical cooking room in 2010 and more recently, a two-storey classroom block to replace two prefabricated classroom blocks. A new £20,000 'sensory room' was opened by sports broadcaster

John Inverdale John Ballantyne Inverdale (born 27 September 1957) is an English broadcaster who works for both the BBC and ITV. During his radio career, he has presented coverage of many major sporting events including the Olympic Games, Wimbledon, the Gran ...

in October 2017.

Students

A significant majority of students at the school are diagnosed with a form of

autism spectrum Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

disorder. The school deals with those who have speech and language disorders as well. The school deals with those with varying levels of disability and suits the learning environment to those. The catchment area of Sunnydown is very wide, taking people from

Tandridge Tandridge is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District, in the county of Surrey, England. Its nucleus is on a rise of the Greensand Ridge between Oxted and Godstone. It includes, towards its middle one named sub-locality (hamlet), ...

and as far as

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in north-west Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'', and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settleme ...

and

Surrey Heath Surrey Heath is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district with borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Camberley. Much of the area is within the Metropolitan Green Belt. The ...

whilst in the borders of Surrey.

Headteachers

Statistics

References

External links

* {{authority control Special schools in Surrey Community schools in Surrey Special secondary schools in England