Clervaux garden School

Welcome to Clervaux Garden School

Clervaux Garden School delivers Ruskin Mill Trust’s unique Practical Skills Therapeutic Education (PSTE) curriculum on a stunning 100-acre biodynamic site near Darlington. The school provides a rich and immersive learning environment for children and young people with autism and other learning differences.

Pupils engage with PSTE – a distinctive educational approach developed by Ruskin Mill Trust – which integrates the insights of Rudolf Steiner with the expectations of the National Curriculum.

Through hands-on experiences, students engage with a rich and balanced craft curriculum that includes textiles, pottery, green woodwork, metalwork (including forge and blacksmithing), and jewellery. Each craft is valued for its contribution to therapeutic education and personal development.

In textiles, for example, pupils work with wool sourced from sheep on site, exploring weaving, felting, spinning, and natural dyeing. These activities sit alongside traditional crafts and land-based learning, including horticulture, animal care and catering, forming a holistic and integrated educational experience.

The gardens, cultivated using biodynamic principles, feature raised beds and polytunnels. Pupils are actively involved in every stage of the growing cycle—from planning and planting to sowing, weeding, and harvesting. The produce is then prepared in the school’s canteen and offered through the on-site Farm Shop, creating meaningful opportunities for pupils to engage in social enterprise. This not only reinforces the connection between land, learning, and life, but also enables students to experience the value of purposeful work, community contribution, and enterprise in action.