THE HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL

The Forest School was opened in 1968. It is a maintained special school run by North Yorkshire County Council. The school meets the needs of pupils from a wide area in the south of the county. The catchment area includes Harrogate and Knaresborough, Ripon, Easingwold, Tadcaster, Selby, Pateley Bridge and their surrounding areas.

The school has grown steadily since it was first opened and now meets the needs of about 125 pupils who are experiencing a range of difficulties. A new classroom building and nursery were added in the 1990's and in 2003/4 further improvements were made and a new library was built.

The Forest School has been inspected twice by OFSTED. At the last inspection in 2000 the inspectors said "This is a very good school. It is well led and expectations of what the pupils will achieve are high. The school provides very good value for money."

In 2002 and 2003 the school won the DFES School Achievement Award for the very high standards we achieve for our pupils.