Abbey Court Rural Activities Centre
Abbey Court School is an outstanding state school for pupils aged 3-19 with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties.
Opened in 2020 after three years of development, the Abbey Court Rural Activities Centre is the culmination of the school’s desire to use nature and animals to enrich its curriculum. It offers pupils a unique learning environment that would engage, motivate and prepare them for the future.
An underused school playing field provided the site and, after close consultation with the school, we designed a rural activities centre that includes:
- Stables
- A barn
- Other farm buildings including an animal feeding station
- Horticultural areas with a polytunnel and planter beds
- Three fenced paddocks for larger animals
- A rabbit run, chicken run and pig pen
- Laundry room
- Classrooms
- Dedicated vehicular access from the road
The rural activities centre is a mini working farm able to offer a safe environment for vulnerable students. We included hand-wash facilities and a wheelchair wash station. There are clearly separated circulation routes between farm and outside-farm areas. The routes from classroom to the stables, barns, paddocks and animal areas are free from farm vehicles and tractors and include covered, accessible, all-weather pathways.
To keep costs down and to provide as authentic a farm-feel as possible, we selected and adapted standard agricultural and equestrian building systems, and completely repurposed and refurbished a pre-owned modular classroom. Large picture windows look out from the classrooms to the farm, so larger animals can be brought right outside the classrooms as a gentle first step to familiarising pupils with the animals.
Abbey Court Rural Activities Centre enables pupils to learn important life skills and how to care for animals, plants and wildlife. They have real work experience opportunities, develop their communication skills and embed their classroom learning in subjects such as maths, geography and science.
Our farm is constantly growing and developing. We currently have a number of different animals living on the farm, including, donkeys, Shetland ponies, goats, rabbits and chickens. The pupils are also helping us to develop the polytunnel, where we have already successfully grown a range of fruit and vegetables, which many of the pupils have enjoyed tasting!