ABSTRACT
Tim Southgate is the head teacher at Ormerod School, a special school for children with physical disabilities in Oxford. In this chapter he reflects on the changes that he and his staff have made to the role of his school. He describes how at the start of the 1980s they felt concern that they were unable to provide all their pupils with the breadth and quality of curricula they needed, particularly at secondary level. This led them to initiate links with mainstream schools for pupils. At first these were part-time but then a full-time arrangement was made with Marlborough School which eventually involved the transfer of the whole of the Ormerod secondary department to the Marlborough site. Integration arrangements for primary age pupils were established within a nearby primary school when they were needed and phased out as pupils were supported at their own local schools. Tim Southgate describes the way the school replaced its former purpose with a new specialist role in working intensively with young children with cerebral palsy to develop their mobility and coordination along the lines of conductive education.
