From its opening in 1906 as the first educational provision for pupils with Special Educational Needs in South East Essex, The St. Christopher School has developed to meet the changing demands placed upon it and aims to meet the individual needs of its current pupils.
This recognises the changing nature of the school with regards to the complexity of pupil needs that the school is catering for.
From September 1999, The St. Christopher School became a Foundation Special School. The school was awarded Beacon School Status with effect from September 2001 and was awarded School Achievement Awards for academic years 1999/2000 and 2000/01. The school became a Specialist SEN School for Communication and Interaction in September 2006. Ofsted Inspections were in May 2000, January 2005 and most recently we achieved an overall 'good' inspection in January 2008.
The school was re-designated in 2005 by the Department for School, Education and Families to cater for primary aged pupils (3 - 11) with a range of learning needs, including communication and interaction difficulties, cognition and learning difficulties, autism and some with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties. Pupils in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 (11 - 16) with severe autism and/or ADHD are also catered for. From November 2007 the school is recognised as catering for 150 pupils. From September 2008 the school will also cater for a small number of 16 - 19 year olds with autism / ADHD who will find it difficult to make the transition to other local provision.
