The Blue Tangerine Charity was created in response to a need; to ensure young people with special needs can enter the mainstream workplace and use their learning and experiences at school to shine there.  We do this by placing our communities at the heart of everything and organising programmes of education, training and other activities to support them. We want to be a resource for all young people with Special Educational Needs, not only those who attend one of our federation schools.

Our charitable objectives are:

(a) To help young people to develop their skills and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as independent, mature and responsible individuals;

(b) To advance education;

(c) To relieve unemployment;

(d) To work closely with the local community to provide more opportunities our children with Special Educational Needs.

Our Story

The Blue Tangerine Federation of Special Schools was formed in 2019 with the linking of The Collett School and St Luke’s Schools.  The Blue Tangerine Charity was established shortly afterwards, to ensure that the aims of the federation’s schools can be met with workplace learning.   We aim to create learning projects that have a wide reach and benefit our local community.  Although separate organisations, the Charity champions the Federation’s ethos and values.

Fewer than 5% of adults with Special Educational Needs are in employment (NHS 2024, DWP 2023) meaning 95% are unemployed.  The Blue Tangerine Federation schools and The Blue Tangerine Charity are determined to move the dial on this statistic.  We showcase every child’s individual abilities in order to build the self-esteem, confidence and skills necessary for a resilient adulthood.

A great example of this is the existing Blue Tangerine Horsebox Café, which creates life-changing work experience opportunities for their young people with SEND.  The Horsebox Café demonstrates that work-related learning improves pupils’ confidence, self-esteem, functional literacy and numeracy.  It promotes a can-do approach and ensures our pupils have real-world experiences to improve chances in adulthood, along with the public seeing the abilities in disability.

So with this focus, a successful cafe in great demand, a newly registeristered charity, an enthusiastic team of trustees and lots of exciting ideas, The Blue Tangerine Cafe and Farm on site at St Luke’s School is our next adventure.