Ysgol Y Deri school is celebrating its tenth anniversary!

Ysgol Y Deri is an award-winning additional needs school which caters for pupils with a range of disabilities.

It provides education for children aged 3 to 19 and even had an educational documentary made about it by the BBC titled ‘A Special School.’

Today (November 14th, 2024) the school celebrated its 10th birthday ahead of the newest season of ‘A Special School’ which will air on BBC 1 Wales at 20:00pm December 2nd.

(left to right) pupils Liam Holmes Owain Taylor Ella Cooper and Ieaun Stephenson with head teacher Chris Britten (Image: NQ) Headteacher Chris Britten had the following to say about the school’s 10th anniversary.  

He said: “It’s nice to celebrate 10 years on some of those kids have been here the full 10 years which is always amazing.”

Chris explained how the school is adapted to suite individuals’ learnings needs.

 He said: “We cater for pupils will a full range of additional learning needs, autism, social, motion, mental health, various medical syndromes some of them have got stuff that’s quite rare for example duchenne's muscular dystrophy.

“A complete range actually and there’s a very, very, wide ability range all the way up to A level. So, it’s quite a challenge to educate that many children across that width of ability but it’s great.”

Chris explained how the school provides support for its pupils. “We’ve got a whole range of specialist teaching rooms, as you’d expect.

“We’ve got a recording studio, a television studio, a radio station, we’ve got professional catering kitchens, art studio.”

He continued: “We’re fortunate as well we’ve got a full range of therapists that work with the kids.”

A disability friendly pool (Image: NQ) At the school I spoke to some of the pupils.

18-year-old Ella Cooper is Head Girl at Ysgol Y Deri. Ella has eyesight issues she’s been working with staff at the school to help improve her reading and writing skills.

Ella said: “The school has been a very amazing place, when I first came to this school, I needed loads of help with the problems I have.”

“With the eyesight problems that I have they’ve improved my reading and writing I’m getting there.”

Staff member Aaron Hawxwell with a disability modified gaming set up (Image: NQ) Member of staff Aaron Hawxwell helps provide physiotherapy to children.

Some of the physiotherapy takes place in the form of video game technology specifically designed to help children with disabilities’ meet their activity targets.

Aaron explained: “It’s about getting them to do stuff without them knowing their doing stuff.”

“With the VR we do experiences like skydiving, and we hang them in a hoist, and we’ve got virtual reality walking that simulates walking it’s fantastic especially for kids that are non-verbal.

“A lot of the kids who you think might not be able to do something if you give them the right bit of equipment and guidance, they are able to do anything.”

He continued: “It’s not just about Maths and English and things like that it’s about their wellbeing.”

A sensory room to help relax students (Image: NQ) When the school first opened back in 2014 it took on a total of 200 pupils. Currently, it caters for the needs of 600 pupils.  

To cope with this the growth the school is expanding and a new site called Ysgol Llyn Derw that is being built Cosmeston.

The playground at Ysgol Y Deri (Image: NQ) A new Sixth Form is being built in order to free up space at the Penarth site.

Headteacher Chris Britten said: “We are growing every year by 40 additional pupils which in a special school is around 4 classes maybe 5 and we’ve just run out of space.”

Construction of the new site has been stalled after construction company ISG entered administration however, staff are aiming to have the school open by September.