Ashgate Croft The Ashgate Croft site on Ashgate Road was originally Chesterfield Union Industrial School / Children’s Home back to 1880. Since then the site has had various buildings and uses, becoming Ashgate Croft School over 50 years ago.
Today the school houses ‘The Croft’ a building set up like a house, complete with lounge area, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom etc. Marie explained “we use this space to teach the children skills for living in a family home, here they can prepare and cook food, fill the washing machine, dishwasher, change the bed etc”.
There’s also a swimming pool onsite, complete with hoists and apparatus to teach children to swim. “This pool is used by many people within the community for swimming lessons, and is used to teach the children at Ashgate
to swim. In my early days here I first saw trust between a student and myself develop, it was a fantastic sense of achievement. When we first started working together in the pool, I could sense the student’s fear of the water. It was something new to them – and very scary. Over time, he became used to the water and is now progressing really well with his swimming – always with a big smile on his face. It’s a great achievement for him and one of the many reasons I come in each day.” “At the school we teach a varied curriculum with a focus on developing life skills. Our mantra is ‘Building Skills for Life’ because that is just what we do; aiming for every one of our students to be the best they can possibly be.” Picture below shows the site to be developed.
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