It is a residential and day school that provides education, therapy and care for pupils who are deaf or who have communication difficulties.

The school and building were paid for by Sir James Donaldson (1751–1830), who, for a time, was publisher of the Edinburgh Advertiser.

[3] The 1851 A-listed Donaldson's Hospital building in Edinburgh was designed by architect William Henry Playfair in the Jacobethan style.

As a national Grant Aided Special School supported by the Scottish Government, the central location of the new site made the facilities more accessible to pupils from all over Scotland and the north of England.

The new Donaldson's School was developed in collaboration with staff, pupils, governors, acousticians and architects.

Both schools were grouped around individual play spaces with links and views across the surrounding area.

Donaldson's Lodge (residential accommodation) had 24 rooms placed in a separate building at the edge of the site in Linlithgow.