Farney Educational Trust

Farney Close School is a place of warmth and care, with a highly dedicated staff group supporting young people to reaching their full potential. The school provides 24-hour care, Monday to Friday during term time that aims to help every young person achieve both academically and socially. The young people who attend our school have encountered significant difficulties within mainstream education and are in receipt of an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP) for a range of complex needs, including Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH), challenging behaviours, Moderate Learning Difficulties, and Attachment-based needs as well as young people who have an Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC). Farney Close is a non-denominational school founded by the Reverend Percy Wallbridge and his wife Vera 65 years ago, whose aim was to support children from all walks of life. Initially the story began with a school on the Isle of Wight, which then moved to Dorset and then on to the current site here in Sussex, where it has been since the early 1960s. Throughout the time it has been a non-profit making charity which has striven to provide the very best education and care for all of the pupils who have attended and its long history means that even now many ex pupils visit and speak fondly of their time at the school. Our Special Educational Needs school has been a non-profit-making charity from the start and remains so today.