Award recognition for new SEND school

Kedleston Group’s Hawley Woods School in Camberley has been named as a finalist in the Education Property Awards in the SEND Project of the Year category. The awards celebrate excellence and achievement in education property.

The school was opened in October 2024 following the completion of a £4m refurbishment project. Many of the young people the school supports have been out of education for some time and have struggled to have their needs met in a mainstream environment. The newly refurbished and bespoke environment is helping them fall back in love with, and re-engage with, learning.

The school helps children with autism may have struggled with the overwhelming sensory environment of their mainstream school by offering the exact opposite – a calm, welcoming and nurturing space specifically designed to meet their needs.

The project saw the Kedleston estates team, alongside Architect David Limb of Cynergi Ltd and contractors Concorde BGW, take the extensive site of a dilapidated former private school and refurbish it to create a light and spacious, low-arousal - yet still educationally exciting and stimulating - school which uses all of the assets of the site’s original footprint to their best potential. It remains sympathetic to both the history of the building and the needs of its next generation of pupils.

Over a three-year period, starting with a dilapidated and extensive site, the team set about demolishing those buildings which were beyond repair, repairing and completely refurbishing those structures and facilities which could be saved and creating from scratch the additional facilities the school’s pupils would need.

Each of the school’s many learning spaces has been designed carefully with the needs of autistic young people in mind from the height of ceilings, wall colours, lighting, soft furnishings, signage, layout, flow and use of light all considered. There are also dedicated sensory spaces, a therapeutic suite, a dedicated life-skills suite, all-purpose multi-use games area, library, forest school, IT suite and performing arts and drama area as well as large and welcoming communal spaces.

Since opening, the school has already welcomed dozens of pupils, with an anticipation that it will be fully subscribed by the end of the year. The impact of the school is already being seen. Children who previously may have had very poor attendance at school enjoy their time at Hawley Woods and all are showing improved attendance and engagement.

Chris Kennedy, Development and Estates Manager at Kedleston Group, said: “We are thrilled that Hawley Woods School has been shortlisted for this prestigious award. The team is very proud to have created a school which, through its design, helps meet the needs of and improve the educational lives of students. To have the project recognised in this way is an honour.”

The school will find out if it has been successful at an awards ceremony being held in Leeds on May 20.