Alexandra School is set within a park and an ecology
site and has its own school field and outside play areas. Security
is a priority and the whole site is fenced. The school is close
to Rayners Lane Tube station and Alexandra Avenue, the main A312,
runs past the end of the school drive.
Alexandra School was
opened in 1975 as a special school for children aged 5 to 15.
In September 1996, following Harrow’s review
of special school provision, Alexandra and Shaftesbury schools
were realigned as primary and secondary schools respectively. A
couple of years later, in September 1998, Alexandra increased its
provision for local children by opening a mainstream nursery, housed
in a light and modern extension to the school building.
There followed a period
of transition and development but by 1999, when the school was
inspected by Ofsted, Alexandra was described
as a good school with many strengths – including the quality
of teaching, the high standard of pupil behaviour and the teamwork
between the teaching and non teaching staff. The school was inspected
again in June 2005 and most recently in July 2008. On both of these
occasions the school was judged to be outstanding, the highest
standard that OFSTED can award. Please see the Ofsted
report for
more details.
Over the years Alexandra has been modernised and developed. Excellent
facilities are just as important in a special school as in any
other educational setting. Classrooms are bright and cheerful and
we have specialist areas for Information Technology, PE, Food Studies
and Music. School dinners are eaten in a large school hall, which
has retractable stadium seating for assemblies and school productions.
The staff and children are proud of the school environment. Throughout
the school you will see children's work displayed and you will
notice how well the children care for the school and its grounds.
In September 2006, we opened our autistic specific provision, The
ASE Place (Autism Specific Environment). For three years The
ASE Place was housed in a Portakabin extension to the main school,
which provided a self-contained and purpose-built learning environment
for two classes, each containing five children.
Then in the summer of 2009, the decision was made to close Alexandra
Nursery. Although we were sad to see the Nursery go, this provided
us with an opportunity to extend our autistic provision, relocating
the ASE Place to the nursery building. The space was re-designed
to incorporate three ASE classrooms, a sensory room, a group area
for the classes to work together and an outdoor learning environment.
Meanwhile, the Portakabin that originally housed the ASE Place
was also re-designed to become the Family Space, which opened in
September 2009. This now provides a dedicated area in school for
parents to meet: with each other for workshops and coffee mornings,
and with the children for group activities. Please see the Parents section for more details.
Today and Tomorrow…
In the school year 2009 –2010, the school has 84 children
on roll, with fifteen of these in the ASE place. This will change
in September 2010, with Harrow’s school reorganisation to
change the ages of transfer. At this point, children will transfer
from Alexandra to a secondary school at the end of year 6, instead
of at the end of year 7. Although it is expected that the school
will shrink slightly at this point, we know that the high number
of referrals we receive every year will ensure that the school
continues to grow.
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