Former Ockbrook School to become £3m residential camp for children with serious illness

That's just to get it up and running with more investment to come by 2030

It has taken staff at a national children's charity more than two years to finally secure the place of their dreams where they will be able to fulfil a long-held ambition to have a base of their own. Over the Wall, which runs residential camps for seriously ill children and their families, has signed a 40-year lease on Ockbrook School from where it will run all of its events throughout the year.

Chief executive Kevin Mathieson spent time taking Derbyshire Live around the former independent school and explained how he feels the 220-year-old landmark with 17 acres and 14 buildings will be the perfect permanent home that the 25-year-old charity has not had so far in the UK. The charity has also bought the fixtures and fittings and hopes to have 100,000 residential beneficiaries in the next 40 years.

The closure of the fee-paying school in July 2021 came as a big shock to staff and 250 pupils who were given just five weeks' notice as it was placed in administration by the Moravian Church which ran it. A short while afterwards, it emerged that it owed creditors more than £2 million. But in less than a year, Over The Wall had spotted the place on the market and been to look at it.

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Mr Mathieson said: The charity has been running residential camps at rented properties throughout the UK since 1999, serving more than 9,000 beneficiaries with more than 130 different health conditions. But setting up a camp at different locations brings many logistical problems to ensure that we have all the right activities, equipment and environment for the children some of whom need nursing care available.

"We knew we wanted our own premises but with an estimated cost to build from scratch of around £30 million, we soon ruled out building from scratch. And although the Covid pandemic was awful, the bonus it brought for people like us was that quite a few schools like this one ceased to exist because of financial problems. In some cases because the overseas influx of pupils and students had stopped. So we had a close look at Ockbrook and liked what we saw.

"The great thing about being in Derbyshire, we will be so central for people across the country to travel to. In fact, 95% of our young people will be within a three-hour drive of here. The school is situated within the Ockbrook Moravian Settlement Conservation Area and some of the buildings are Grade II-listed."

Mr Mathieson said that instead of the immediate £30 million price tag to build from scratch, around £3 million will allow the process of converting the school to the charity's needs to get under way in the short term. As part of the process of converting the school, Mr Mathieson has been keen to encourage local residents, former staff and pupils and anyone who is interested to come along to a meeting to hear about the charity's plans and perhaps to become involved as a Friend of Over The Wall.

The charity is currently headquartered in Havant, in Hampshire, but when the new venue is up and running in 2026, it will move to Ockbrook. Its residential camps help children living with serious illness, and their families, address the isolation, loneliness, low self-esteem, and confidence that often accompany childhood illness. Its completely free-of-charge programmes give children the opportunity to take part in activities often denied to them, in a fun-filled and safe environment.

Mr Mathieson said: "We will have about 30-40 staff but hope to boost that number to 70-80, who we will recruit locally, especially in catering and housekeeping. We hold camps in the school holidays and at weekends. But we also hope to be able to raise funding and have an income stream by renting out our space to organisations who may wish to use it during the week for various activities.

"By 2030, we have ambitions to run the camps all year round and expect to be able to extend the residential accommodation here to accommodate 50-60 children and as many adults, including clinical staff. So we are looking to potentially have 120 beds and we will be looking to have some of those in The Mount, which was previously the nursery at the school.

"We will shortly be submitting planning permission to reinstate the Mount, which was severely affected by water damage in 2022, to become a residential centre for our beneficiaries and expect that to cost around £2 million."

Young people are referred to the camps largely through hospitals and clinicians, although some families apply directly through the website for consideration.

The improvements and changes the charity hopes to make on the site include turning the west meadow, which is a field currently, into an adventure park; creating an amphitheatre; installing high ropes and a climbing wall and making the outdoor area near to the reception at the main hall, much more welcoming with planting and seating, instead of looking like a former games court as at present.

All of the existing rooms in the former school will be used by the children attending the camps including the cookery room, sports hall, textile room, and out of them will be created activity and hobby areas such as sports, cooking and gaming. The library area will become the dispensary and area for children to be if they need to be isolated during sickness.

Two more opportunities for local people and interested parties to find out more about Over the Wall and its plans for the Ockbrook site are taking place on Thursday, May 16 when there will be an afternoon session from 2pm to 3pm and an evening session from 6.30pm to 7.30pm.

Anyone wishing to know more about joining Friends of Over The Wall Camp can find out more by clicking here

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