The importance of practical life skills and independence contributes to create a well-rounded and broad balanced curriculum at Abbey School. We are really lucky to have worked with Wilmot Dixon and have them as our Enterprise partners.The Lane End retreat is a house that talks back. It enhances the life chances of our pupils and uses QR codes to teach pupils how to undertake practical activities in the home. This ranges from making a cup of tea, washing windows, using a washing machine and learning about E Safety in the home.

The house is also used for respite, allowing pupils to experience a night or weekend away from home that encourages and nurtures independence and develops their social and emotional wellbeing.

The aim of Lane End Retreat is : To empower, encourage, inspire and teach life skills to children in order to achieve personal growth that prepares them for later life and develops independence.

During the development of the house our pupils played a vital role in documenting the journey that the house went on. This included a multimedia team that developed videos to work alongside the QR codes and interviewing the team involved in creating the house that talks back.

Pupils were also involved in painting and decorating the house to the standard that you see today on the images within this section. This provided our pupil with work experience and vocational learning in a professional environment. Please take a few minutes to look at the multimedia on this page to show how our vision is put into practice.