But for all of the children who attend Kersie House this is the only school option they have available without having to make a forty mile round trip every day. For the parents, it's not only a school but it's the only local support system they have to help them cope with the day-to-day difficulties of raising a child with special needs.
Take six year old Jessica Malvern for instance, who was born with Down's Syndrome and has severe heart problems as a consequence. She can't go anywhere without a Cardioverter Defibrillator or supplementary oxygen and can collapse up to twelve times a day. Kersie House is the only school who has teachers trained in both attending to her medical needs as well as her education.
Louise Malvern: To be told that your daughter has Down's Syndrome is difficult enough to deal with... knowing she will always have to fight that little bit harder for everything achievement... but to also be told it's unlikely she'll live to her teens... words cannot describe how devastating that is to learn as a parent. The world sort of shatters and looking into the future is like looking down into a black abyss. You can't see how you will ever be able to cope. You can't see any hope. But life goes on and you can't cry for ever and you find a way to cope and hope. After all, it's your job to give your child the best start in life possible, no matter how long or short that life may be. You have to learn how to cope and focus yourself on giving your child as normal and as best a childhood as possible.
Amy Drysdale: The support system at Kersie House is just incredible. Many things that you never thought your child could do or have is proven otherwise. The staff are so determined to prove that just because a child has special needs it doesn't mean they can't have friends, or play games or have as fulfilled a childhood as any other child their age. Whether it be jobskills or lifeskills, the staff at Kersie are determined that every student attains their fullest potential.
Laura Anderson: Kersie is our lifeline. I don't think we, as a family, could have coped without them. They're so much more than a school. They are a family and a home and a support system. They give you a network of people who are just like yourself and who have the same struggles as you do - who understand and don't judge. And when you see your child flourishing in ways you could never have dreamed and, in turn, the rest of your family life too, it makes all the difference in the world.
Head Mistress, Lizzie Scholefield, has governed the school for over twenty-five years and is cherished by both the parents and students alike. She makes sure that parents are kept up to date with all the information they need and helps them gain the benefits and assistance they require including options for respite care and counselling for parents who need it. Without her compassion and determination to meet the individual support needs of every child many parents say they'd have long given up,
Amy Drysdale: Lizzie is amazing. Considering how much she has to fight the authorities to get the most vital of equipment it's incredible what she has achieved. The council says it can't afford to buy a hoist to help with toileting, Lizzie will organise a fundraiser and raise the money herself. A company says it will take up to 3 weeks to deliver a new steriliser, Lizzie will go and fetch it from the warehouse at her own expense because they can't go a day without one. If a teacher wants to take some of the kids on school trip then, as the school doesn't have a mini-bus, she phones all the bus companies to find a volunteer driver who'll take them for free. She fights tooth and nail for Kersie House and changes so many lives for the better because of it.
It's not just the authorities Lizzie has had to battle. In 1997 and 2001 the school was flooded during two of the worst storms ever recorded in Britain. It took five months to clean up the mess enough for the pupils to be able to return. In 2006 the gymnasium roof was ripped off in a gale and it was only thanks to a kind donation from a local factory that it was able to be fixed. Then last year she received the worst news possible; North Yorkshire had condemned the building and the school would close forever at the end of summer term.
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