[1] The school meets the needs of children and young people age from 2 to 19 years[2] with physical disability, visual impairment, complex medical needs, and social, communication and interaction difficulties.
Exhall Grange School was established in 1951 on the site of a former Second World War army base,[5][6] and began life with twelve pupils.
[6] Its reputation as a leading school for educating visually impaired students was established by its then headmaster, George Marshall.
[10] Marshall would later achieve international recognition for his expertise on the education and welfare of those with sight loss,[11] and received the OBE in 1976.
[6] George Marshall also invited artists to work with children from Exhall Grange to encourage them to develop an appreciation of art,[14] and several sculptures were commissioned by him.
[13] Bignell – himself visually impaired – recognised the benefits for the school and its students of using computer technology in a teaching environment.
During the 1980s Exhall Grange became an early user of the Vincent Workstation, a system that enabled braille to be translated into speech and printed text.
[16] Bignell continued to raise the school's profile throughout his tenure as its headmaster, building on the work of his predecessor.
[18] In 1985 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher apologised to the school after mistakenly criticising members of its teaching staff who belonged to the National Union of Teachers for taking strike action.
"[19] In 1985 Exhall Grange was the largest school for visually impaired students in the United Kingdom,[16] but in more recent years, a greater number of children with single disabilities have gradually been included in mainstream education, and Exhall Grange's role as a special school has adapted as a consequence.
The school now caters largely for pupils living in the local vicinity, with the main catchment area being the northern part of Warwickshire, including Bedworth and Nuneaton.
A special book by David Howe was published; titled, Exhall Grange School: The First Fifty years.
[21] Also in 2002, researchers from the University of Warwick worked with pupils at the school in a series of experiments that involved using ferrets to help discover how blind children perceive space.
[22] In July 2003, Exhall Grange became the first special school to achieve specialist science college status.
[23][24] It was redesignated as a science college in November 2007, and in September 2008 was granted special educational needs (physical and sensory) specialist status.
[28] In Autumn 2009 a coach hired by Exhall Grange for a student trip to France was targeted by two Afghan teenage stowaways as the school party prepared to return to the United Kingdom.