The Kisimul Timeline
Kisimul School founded in 1977 for the care and education of pupils with special needs. Originally portakabins formed the first school building, whilst home was in the beautiful Old Vicarage, Swinderby.
Kisimul School purchased by the Kinder and Shaw families, trading as Kisimul Group Ltd. Kisimul’s ethos of providing excellent care and education for pupils with special needs continues.
Edexcel accreditation. Registered centre to aid staff achieve recognised qualifications such as NVQs in Health and Social Care for children and young adults.
Investors in People Certificate first awarded.
Addition of Aislinn House to provide further accommodation and education facilities just across the road from The Old Vicarage. Kisimul School wins Teacher of Year Award – Excellence in Special Needs Teaching, East Midlands region – for the exemplary work of class teacher Jean Gardner (later Head Teacher and Head of Education).
Kisimul School wins Teacher of Year Award – Excellence in Special Needs Teaching, East Midlands region – for the work of class teacher Sharon Gabbitas. Sharon’s intensive language work with one pupil had resulted in his learning to talk at the age of 16.
Kisimul approved for ASDAN (Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network) offering a wide range of awards for young people of all abilities to recognise and reward skills as personal challenges are completed.
Upper School expansion. Opening of Acacia Hall, Friesthorpe, to give even greater opportunities and life experiences to our older children (16 – 19 years) as they develop into adulthood.
Opening of An Darach Care – our domiciliary care agency. Acquisition of individual property at Manor Road, Swinderby, to enable a comfortable home and a groundbreaking, highly-specialised care service for one severely autistic Kisimul leaver.
Following retirement of the directors, Kisimul Group Ltd is sold. Senior Kisimul managers are appointed to the new board of directors, to ensure continuity and to guarantee standards. New investors are carefully chosen to enable the future growth and development of the school with the same high standard and quality of care and education.
Appointment of Margaret Hill as Chief Executive Officer. Margaret brings over 25 years’ experience of operating quality residential homes and educational services for both children and young adults.
Exceptionally good Ofsted inspection report received.
New purpose-built school opened, with office accommodation upstairs.
Aislinn House – two extra bedrooms added to Swinderby site.
Development of both children’s and adults’ services. We reinforce our commitment to providing additional high-quality, adult places.
Opening of An Caladh House, Washingborough.
An Darach House residents move from Swinderby to more spacious premises at North Scarle. Araòn House opens opposite the new school, offering a further 7 residential placements within the grounds of The Old Vicarage.
Opening of Kisimul School – Woodstock House, Long Ditton. This is Kisimul Group’s first school in the south of England, and will offer up to 60 new residential places to meet growing demand.
Plans in motion to extend Kisimul Upper School at Acacia Hall by 12 beds.
Plans in motion to upgrade the swimming pool at The Old Vicarage (Kisimul Lower School) and incorporate a gymnasium.
Phase II of Woodstock House development was completed in August 2009, providing a further 14 beds (8 single bedrooms and 3 double) for our children.
Our third adult unit, Suillean House, was opened in August 2009.
We extend Araòn House on our Swinderby site by 2 bedrooms and add a very spacious and wonderful conservatory.
The barn at Acacia Hall (Kisimul Upper School in Lincolnshire) is converted to provide an additional play area in which older children can let off steam.
Our fourth adult unit, Tigh Bruadair (pronounced Tee Broo-ah-dair) with 10 bedrooms, opens in Gainsborough in August.
Phase IIIa of Woodstock House development is completed in September, providing a further 14 bedrooms for our children.
Building works for our gym building and extension of our indoor swimming pool have started in October 2010 at our Swinderby site.
Buildings works for our gymnasium and indoor swimming pool in Swinderby are completed and provide wonderful spaces for indoor play and activities.
We open our fifth adult home called Blythe House in Faldingworth, only minutes away from our Upper School, Acacia Hall. It originally had six ensuite bedrooms, but this was later extended to ten.
The fourth and final stage of our development phase at Woodstock is completed, providing additional spaces in residence, as well as a fantastic new school building with 5 high-tech classrooms, sensory room, OT suite, ICT room and many other facilities to provide a safe and enjoyable learning environment. We are also given planning permissions to develop our playground area into an adventure playground.
We purchase a bungalow on our Swinderby site which is converted into an additional residential unit, Alair House, for six young people.
