Ash Lea Primary School is a community day special school for 84 children aged three to eighteen who experience complex learning difficulties. The school is committed to ensuring the best possible education for its pupils and maintaining strong community links.

Kate Davies, Acting Head Teacher said, “Ash Lea School is a special school in Nottinghamshire for pupils with profound, complex and severe learning difficulties ranging in age from 3-18. The school’s focus is always on meeting pupils’ aspirations with a focus on ‘life after Ash Lea’ therefore developing functional skills and using these within our community is vital. We also endeavour to give our pupils a rich and varied curriculum that gives them the cultural capital to succeed; theatre and gallery visits, residentials, hydrotherapy and outdoor leaning challenges. Many pupils have physical disabilities and around a quarter are wheelchair users and adapted vehicles are essential to enable this rich learning offer. Whilst some of our pupils are able to access public transport the vast majority need support to access community-based learning and opportunities.

Thank you from all our pupils and staff for this vital tool to ensure that our pupils can be ‘the best they can be’.

The Sunshine Coach will provide enriching opportunities for the pupils to transfer their learning from the classroom to a real-life context. Extracurricular visits throughout the school year support children’s thematic learning in school and can include historical buildings and places, sports activities, sensory experiences, outdoor pursuits, theme parks, the city centre and gardens.

Charlotte Walker, Regional Development Director at Variety said: “We are delighted to donate one of our Sunshine Coaches to Ash Lea School and would like to thank The Desmond Foundation for their huge generosity in making this possible and for their continued support.

Every new Sunshine Coach on the road is a step towards our goal of improving the lives of disadvantaged and disabled children across the UK. These coaches enable children and young people to get the most out of school life by granting access to recreational facilities outside of the school environment that would otherwise be out of their reach.”

Variety’s Sunshine Coaches have helped improve the lives of thousands of disabled or disadvantaged children across the UK. The coaches enable schools to take children on educational and recreational days out, allowing children to explore places they would otherwise never have visited.