About Us
More than a residential school.
It is home.
Introduction
More than a residential school. It is home.
We approach things a little differently at Loddon. We offer a ‘home-based style of education, with children learning through play and experiencing new life skills. Every opportunity is seen as a learning moment, as we operate 52 weeks of the year, there are a lot of opportunities!
We strive to ensure each child has an enhanced quality of life. Our multidisciplinary team uses positive working methods and a solution-focused approach to engage children in learning and prepare them for their adult life.
Our Story
One team, one mission, since 1988
The Loddon School began with a simple, stubborn conviction: that children with autism and the most complex behaviours deserve not an institution, but a home – and a real education within it.
Today the School is part of The Loddon Foundation, alongside Loddon Training. We are one integrated team working to meet the needs of the children and young people in all that we do: allowing them space to be free.
Our PLLUSS curriculum and approach extends across the waking day, designed to help learners develop functional skills and experience a range of activities in settings where they are comfortable and relaxed. When children are calm and alert, and their sensory needs are met, behaviours reduce, and learning can be successfully accessed.
Part of something larger
The Loddon Foundation
Leadership team
The people accountable for the whole of Loddon.
Our senior leadership team holds the standards, sets the direction, and keeps Loddon the kind of place its founders meant it to be. Many have spent the greater part of their careers here.
Richard Kennett
Chief Executive Officer
Tim Clark
Director of Care
Joanna Emerson
Director of Education
Elizabeth Fairhead
Director of Finance and Facilities
Helen Wood
Head of Training, Compliance and Research
Maciej Okolotowicz
Deputy Director of Care
Kelly Simpson
Deputy Director of Care & Designated Safeguarding Lead
Elizabeth Penman
Head of Therapies
Danielle Jewers
Senior HR Advisor Assoc CIPD
Jorge Garcia
Head of Transitions
Lea Garcia
Head of Behaviour Analysis and Support
Marion Cornick
Meet ourFounder
Marion Cornick MBE founded Loddon School in 1988. Marion is well known in the field of special education for the contribution she has made to improving the quality of life for a very special group of people who are often marginalised.
One integrated team
Around every child.
Teachers, therapists, behaviour specialists, care staff and support teams, all on one site, all pulling in the same direction. Many of our people have been here for ten, fifteen, twenty years; long enough to truly know our children and their families.
86 People
across teaching, care, therapy & support
178 colleagues
in our wider organisation
14 Years
Average tenure across senior leadership
52 Weeks
a year the team is here for our children
Our Values
How we work, and why it matters.
Our purpose is to provide value in the education and care of children with autism, severe learning disabilities and associated complex behaviours.
We achieve this by giving each child an enhanced quality of life – in partnership with parents, and through the creative design, development and delivery of positive working methods.
We achieve our mission by being innovational, encouraging, inspiring and holistic in our approach. Loddon’s ethos supports each child working at their own pace, once they are receptive and relationships with staff are well formed.
Our ethos
Allowing them space to be free;
"free to be me".
When children are calm and alert, and their sensory needs are met, behaviours that get in the way reduce and learning can be accessed. For some this takes time, to unlearn learnt behaviours and accept new strategies and skills. We move at the child’s pace, never our own.
01
Innovational
We design personalised learning and measure its impact.
- A PLLUSS curriculum® that develops personalised programmes of learning.
- Data collection and analysis to measure the progress and success of our methods.
02
Encouraging
We meet each child with the right support, consistently.
- Appropriate, positive teaching styles to suit each child.
- Consistent support and education from a fully integrated, multi-disciplinary team.
03
Inspiring
We set achievable goals and plan for life beyond Loddon.
- Achievable goals to ensure positive progress.
- Meeting each child’s needs in all aspects of daily living and independence.
- Joint planning of post-Loddon placements.
04
Holistic
We treat each child, and each family, as a whole.
- Creative arts, communication skills, positive interaction and sensory opportunities
- Parents fully integrated through communication, joint goal-setting, reviews and family events.
Hear from a parent
There's so much that is bestshared by our parents
Inspections & oversight
Outstanding in
every judgement
Loddon is inspected as both a school and a children’s home. Across our most recent Education cycle, every judgement was outstanding. The Care Ofsted judgement was outstanding also, and all reports can be seen below.
School · overall
Outstanding
Quality of
education
School · overall
Outstanding
attitudes
School · overall
Outstanding
development
School · overall
Outstanding
Leadership and
management
School · overall
Outstanding
provision
Last inspection · March 2025 · Ofsted URN 116548 · ISI accredited