The Castle School

About the school

The Castle School caters for children with a variety of complex learning difficulties from the ages of 4 to 19 offering a range of provision for different ages, stages and needs. Our Love Lane and Post-16 sites meet the needs of children and young people with a variety of learning difficulties and disabilities. Our Castle @ Theale site meets the needs of children and young people with social, emotional and mental health needs.

The Castle School is a very welcoming and open school with a caring and highly specialised staff team who are committed to supporting the education of all our pupils and make our school a very special place. We pride ourselves on our warm, caring and supportive atmosphere; a place where children can flourish, learn, enjoy and be happy; a community where we value and embrace support from parents, professionals and friends.

Our Vision

To create a happy, secure and stimulating learning environment which will encourage and challenge our learners to develop their skills and knowledge as far as they can and provide the best education possible.

Our Purpose

The Castle School exists to provide a caring, nurturing and outstanding educational community for the learners of West Berkshire and beyond. Our key purpose is to educate, motivate, inspire and celebrate all children with additional needs and to provide a quality educational experience which encourages equality for all; to develop individual self-worth, esteem and potential in all learners and uphold their rights.

We Believe

That anyone with the drive and desire can reach their goals. Our role is to inspire young people to achieve and provide the support to enable our learners to become independent, self-confident and resilient members of the community.

Our Aims are to:

• encourage all our learners to be curious and hungry to learn, now and in the future
• enable our learners to become valued citizens who contribute positively within their community and beyond
• set high expectations in all areas of learning and create an environment that enables our learners to flourish
• deliver outstanding provision that is at the cutting edge of good practice
• develop positive, mutually-trusting partnerships with families to improve the outcomes of our learners
• empower our learners and equip them with the skills to achieve a full and independent adult life
• engender confidence, resilience, self-worth and a passion for life-long learning

We strive to do this together by:

• providing each learner with the skills, resilience, drive and passion needed to be successful and happy through a well-differentiated broad, balanced and inspiring curriculum
• celebrate everyone’s achievements and talents and embrace the wonderful diversity of our inclusive school community
• having a highly trained, creative and innovative staff team
• empowering each learner through a total communication environment enabling everyone to express themselves and to remove barriers
• supporting each learner with engaging and active challenges to encourage everyone to become life-long learners.
• working together with learners, parents, carers, professionals and members of the community to improve outcomes for all.