The Templehill Community offers further education and training to those young people with special needs who, because of the extent of their disabilities, cannot easily find an appropriate placement. Within our residential, rural setting they can find peace, freedom and the time they need to develop. The rhythm of our daily life helps these young people to learn to live with each other and with their own difficulties.
Templehill, a therapeutic community, is a member of the Association of Camphill Communities. It consists of an estate of twenty nine acres with a walled garden, schoolhouse, craft buildings and four houses where staff and students live and share their life together. Students live in double or single rooms, and each house has large common areas where our students like to be together. Everyone is encouraged to take part in the organisation and running of the house, including cookery, laundry, and maintaining order and cleanliness. We wish our students to feel both at home here, and responsible for their surroundings. Our daily programme includes work activities such as gardening, estate work and baking. Craft activities include candlemaking, weaving, basket work, woodwork and pottery. Our aim is to give each student a balanced training in a variety of skills. By helping them to understand that the work they do needs to be done and is valued, we aim to strengthen the students awareness of the world, developing motivation and moral feeling.
Our programme of further education, based on a study of man and his relationship to the natural world, and a study of the development of mankind from the earliest civilisations up to the present day, is designed to help our students to understand their place in the world. We also offer a range of cultural and recreational activities, including folk-dancing, current affairs, concerts by outside performers, talks and plays. For those who would benefit there is a programme of further schooling, and some therapies are offered, under the supervision of a medical consultant. All students are registered with our local GP at his surgery two miles away, and we enjoy a full range of services.
