The Grange School Kempston

The Grange on completion [PY/PH6/7]

The Grange Special School was created in the early 1960s. It is named after the nearby mansion.

The school was created by then local education authority Bedfordshire County Council. It was a school catering for children with a condition then referred to as being mildly educationally sub-normal. Today this category of student is described as having mild learning difficulties. This will include children who are suffering from a specific medical condition, such as being on the autistic spectrum.

On 1st April 2009 Bedfordshire County Council was abolished. Its functions in the north of the county were taken over by Bedford Borough Council. This was a district, or second tier, authority which was upgraded to a unitary council with both first and second tier responsibilities – a county and district council rolled into one.

Academies had been established in 2000 as a way to close failing schools and replace them with schools financed by public money but run by their own governors. In 2010 this option was extended to any school which wished to exercise it. The Grange is now an academy [2013] thus relieving itself of LEA control in the day-to-day running of the school, though the LEA retains an element of control over pupils admitted to the school.

The following list gives all the sources relating to The Grange School held by Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service. Due to the terms of the Data Protection Act records containing personal details of living individuals will be closed in total, or in part, depending on the nature of the information.

• PY/PH6/1-7: photographs of interior and exterior of school: 1962-1975;
• CA2/89: building file for new classrooms: 1964;
• CA8/154: building maintenance file: 1966-1972;
• Z1301/1: survey of Kempston by Police Cadets at Mander College, Bedford: 1968;
• SS/HD1/1/1: correspondence file regarding pupils going to riding classes at Park Hospital, Mogerhanger: 1970-1992;
• CA2/257: building file for changing rooms: 1971;
• CA2/461: building file: 1971-1977;
• E/SE2/1/2: file of brief notes of visits to school by LEA staff and advisers: 1971-1987;
• SDKempstonGrange1: correspondence file: 1972-1988;
• CA2/581: building file for extension: 1973-1981;
• CA8/965: building maintenance file: 1973-1983;
• PY/PH192/2: photographs: 1975;
• E/ME6/1/5: applications for Section 11 funded posts at school: 1980s;
• E/TE3/5: countywide newsletter on special schools: 1981;
• E/EP1/1: possible use of school premises by Education Psychology Service: 1984;
• E/ME6/1/5-6: applications for funding for multicultural education posts: late 1980s;
• E/PM6/2/1: replies to a questionnaire on corporal punishment: 1986;
• HT13/2/11: Harpur Trust grant to school: 1999