Le Rondin School & Centre is a special needs school for primary age children and is home to the Island's Child Development Centre
The new buildings opened in September 2005. This started the reorganisation of special needs education in Guernsey, with the aim of reducing the number of special schools from three to two. This reorganisation also aimed to create a centre for pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, the Link Centre, which opened in 2009.
Le Rondin School & Centre is at the forefront of special education provision. It can cater for up to 150 primary age pupils with moderate learning difficulties, severe learning difficulties and more profound and multiple disabilities.
Le Rondin School has all the usual facilities you would expect to find in a mainstream primary school - classrooms, a library, food technology room, sports facilities, music and drama room, ICT room, hall and dining area. The design and layout of the teaching spaces have been carefully considered with input from staff, parents and pupils to ensure that the school is functional but also a fun and stimulating place to teach and learn.
Classrooms all have their own storage areas and can be opened up into one large teaching space or subdivided into smaller group rooms. One to one and support rooms provide areas where pupils can receive individual attention.
Local charity support provided light and sound equipment for three special sensory rooms and a hydrotherapy pool creating a stimulating environment for children with a range of disabilities. The three teaching wings feature distinctive stained glass windows to help children find their way around the building. Wooden outdoor play equipment in both the infant and junior play areas is accessible to pupils in wheelchairs and two special sensory gardens enable pupils to continue their learning outside the classroom as well as inside.
The task when building Le Rondin was to provide a facility that would bring together education, health and social services professionals and their support staff under one roof. So as well as a school, Le Rondin is also a base for the Education Support Services. These services support pupils with visual, hearing, language and communication or learning problems in both mainstream schools special schools. Le Rondin is also home to the Health Services Child Development Centre which means that those working to meet the needs of children across the special needs spectrum are all under one roof.
