Before we go any further on this page, I must stress that any opinions expressed are solely my own and that other readers, some of whom may have been pupils at WES, may have opinions or feelings about the School which differ from mine.
When my sister and I joined the school in September of 1976 pupils had to be registered as Blind to attend.
Children from all across the South West would be coached to the school, in Exeter, on a Monday morning in time for the start of classes at 1 p.m. and then coached home again on Friday's after the classes finished at 1 P.m.
Each County authority would put on a coach which transported Visually Impaired children to WES and Hearing Impaired children to the Royal Deaf School, Exeter, just a mile or so along the same road.
Coaches from Cornwall, North Devon, south Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Avon cluttered the small car park every week.
I'm not sure of the numbers of pupils attending whilst I was there, but each year group only had one class, except for our year which was split into two groups for some of the time. There were 16 pupils in my year and this was the biggest year seen for some time.
If I try hard I think I can remember all of their names.
some of the group attended an "unofficial" reunion in May 2009 along with friends from previous/successive year groups.
To see the pictures click Reunion 2009
The school year groups were numbered, group 1 being the final exam yeargroup.
I joined the school in group 6, which was Mr Cox's group at the time.
in group 5 we had Mr Arthur Sidgewick as our group teacher.
In group 4 and group3 the class was split between Mr Voslu and Mrs Brand
In group 2 the class came back together as one under the then Deputy Head, Mr Packham.
And not wanting to spoil the tradition, in group 1, our final year, Mrs Davis was our group teacher.
Following the 1984 Education Act and it's bias toward the intergration of Disabled children into the "mainstream" education system, there has been a lot of talk about how unsuitable "Special Schools" are and a move away from placing children in schools such as West Of england.
I am aware that biography's such as that of the former Home Secretary, Mr Plunket portray special boarding schools much along the lines of the workhouse in Oliver Twist.
My own experience is the complete opposite. I am 100% sure that if I hadn't attended a special school, I would not have left education with 11 O Levels or their equivalant, with the confidence to attend my local mainstream further ed college etc.
West Of England gave me a level playing field on which to perform, where it was normal for children to use Low Vision Aids to enable them to read their work. Where everyone was in the same boat.
All children are the same the world over, so I'm not suggesting that this was some form of Utopia; of course there was a pecking order and some people will have had a different experience of school than I. However, given that visually impaired children even today, with all the support available, continue to either fail or scrape by in mainstream placements, I am pleased to say that I feel WES gave me confidence and independance, a good starting point to challenge the wider world on it's terms.
The best piece of advice that I recall came from more than one teacher, but I particularly remember Mr Packham driving it home; (To compete with someone who is sighted, we have to be twice as good to break even".
Over the years the school has evolved, changing to allow for the developing needs of those with multiple disabilities, extending to cover further educational needs for those up to 21 yrs of age.
Much of the open space we were used to enjoying as play areas after school has been taken up with developments such as the Further Education complex, (built on the RS area,Donkey Paddock and orchard), the St Davids Unit,(takes up the space where the fort used to stand), purpose built Library and Study centre (squeezed in between the end of Girls House and the Old school block),etc.
There are pictures of the above mentioned buildings in the WES section on Blindo's Gallery Page.
Two of my own children attended the school between 1994 & 2005 and we found it to have changed considerably since our time there. The drive to succeed, to be better than the sighted world outside in order to compete had been replaced with a feeling that achievement doesn't matter as these children would be on further training courses for much of their lives and their income would be derived from benefits. The level of expectation from the staff simply wasn't the same.
I understand that in the Summer of 2008 the school was to undergo massive change, with many of the outdated buildings being pulled down and the school being restructured both in terms of the buildings and in terms of it's goals, to make it more suited to the future needs of disabled pupils.
If anyone is involved in the new future of WES I'd love to have some feed-back on it's future structure and role.
Last updated on 1 January 2012
Copyright: R J Moore 2008-2012 all rights reserved.