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Grange Park School

This is a Kent County Council Community Special School for children of secondary age with a diagnosis of Autism. The building was built in the 1970s and stands within the grounds of the Leybourne Grange mental hospital (which opened 1936, closed 1996). At the time, it was called Grange Park College, and was a provision for young people aged 16 to 21 who were profoundly and multiply handicapped. With the closure of the mental hospital and reorganisation of provision for young people with special educational needs, the college was re designated as a school in about 1998, and began taking autistic pupils aged from 11.
The old hospital site is currently being re-developed and will become a large housing estate. The Grange Park School building and site, which was never well suited for use as a school for autistic teenagers, will also be sold for development, and the school is being relocated to a new purpose-built building in the grounds of Wrotham School in grid square TQ6158.