Spa School


Spa School is a mixed secondary school in Bermondsey in the London Borough of Southwark. It is one of Britain's largest state schools for children with autism, and has a high staff to student ratio.
The school occupies an old-fashioned red-brick building behind which is a landscaped garden through which flows an artificial stream.

Students

There are 100 pupils aged between 11 and 19, both boys and girls, with a range of autism spectrum disorders between severe and high-functioning.

Staff

The head teacher is Simon Eccles. There are over 70 members of staff.

Media attention

The school was featured within a BBC article "School grounds 'improve behaviour'" and students and staff alike were interviewed on the school's scheme of natural improvement within the school grounds.
A Channel 4 documentary Make Me Normal, broadcast on 2 June 2005, was filmed at Spa School. The one-hour documentary followed four students at the school as they revealed what it is like to grow up with a disability that affects around 535,000 people in the UK.