Chailey Heritage School

Written by our President, Verena Hanbury(Granddaughter of Dame Grace Kimmins)   

Chailey Heritage School was founded by Grace Kimmins, a young girl with a big heart and a determination only equalled by a few.  

She was working in the East End of London with adults suffering from poverty-related diseases and deformities, when she became deeply moved by the many children born “crippled” (as it was termed then) as a result of these circumstances. It became clear to her that these were children for whom society had no time, for whom education was non-existent and the future was bleak. Without hesitation she decided to dedicate her life to giving these children as good a chance in life as any other. 

She was determined to build a school specifically for these children. It would be in the country where the beauties of life could be experienced. It would educate and teach a craft to ensure independence in adulthood. It would be a school they would be proud to be part of and it would always be there for them in times of need – their Heritage. 

She found an old workhouse at Chailey in Sussex. It had no electricity and the nearest telephone was three miles away in Plumpton. Undaunted, on June 6^th 1903 she arrived with seven boys, “one for each day of the week” as she put it and her school was born. Her enthusiasm and her belief in her cause magnetised educationalists and medics, all wanting to give of their time to be part of this pioneering work and, in the same way, donations poured in from all over the country. Her positive attitude was infectious. The pupils’ first task was to make a little wooden ladder, each rung representing achievement; their first writing test was “There’s always room at the top”. 

By 1936 she had created a boys school and a girls school three miles away, both equipped with operating theatres and medical facilities where education and treatment could be practised together. This was so successful that when our hospitals were nationalised, in 1948, Chailey went with them. 

The schools were extracted and amalgamated as a non-maintained special school and what was now the National Health Service provided the pupils’ medical needs. This partnership remains today with the school and this unique NHS service together on one site. 

Grace Kimmins, by now Dame Grace Kimmins, died in 1954 having achieved her dream. Her legacy, her spirit of determination and enthusiasm, remain with us today and the example she set, recognising a need and then working to fulfil it, strongly influences the work of the school a hundred years on.  

Her contribution to Special Education was truly significant and I am proud to be her granddaughter.