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New School for Autistic Children to open in Tadworth

The founders, Gillian Hutton and Vail Sale, decided to open the school when they found that they were having to reject too many pupils at the Foresters special unit where they taught.

Mrs Hutton, the former Head Teacher at Foresters Primary School in Wallington, and Mrs Sale, the Speech and language therapist, became frustrated at both the lack of spaces and distances that some of the children had to travel. They agreed that they could actually provide a specialist centre themselves, so with the support of their families, they have done exactly that!

The name Papillon (meaning butterfly) was chosen because they want their pupils to emerge from the chrysalis and "fly free".

Papillon House School is based in a mansion and gardens at the top of Pebble Hill, Tadworth, and staff are ready to start when the school opens in November, as long as enough children have been recruited. Eventually, Papillon will house 96 pupils, but just six will be enough to open as planned.

The first intake will be aged between four and seven and the plan is that they can stay there until they reach 16, although the eventual aim is a leaving age of 19.
Autism affects the whole family, and the two women have a wealth of experience and understanding to call on to help ease the anxiety and pressure that the parents of an autistic child can face.

In addition to state-of-the-art equipment, designed to help children who are easily stressed and sometimes withdrawn and angry, Mrs Sale said: "It's also been recognised that a gluten and casein free diet can be helpful to sufferers of autism, and so I will be cooking this special diet for all the children."

The school is recruiting now, and enquiries should be directed to:
Gillian Hutton on 020 8679 1669 / 07711 169368
Vail Sale 01737 355643 / 07708 910746.
To visit the website, click here

Funding for places for a child with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder who has a statement of educational need is generally provided by the local education authority.