Lighthouse School Leeds
Free schools special school in Leeds (Leeds).
Location
iSchool location from Get Information about Schools. Nearby schools are coloured by phase. Open Map+ for a full-screen map with neighbourhood deprivation (England only).About
Lighthouse School is built around the needs of our students and we are dedicated to supporting them to have a bright future. The values, the curriculum, and even the school building, have been developed to maximise the impact on our student's lives. Lighthouse School is a specialist secondary school for autistic students. For more details, please visit our admissions page.
All of our students are unique (autism is a spectrum condition and manifests differently) and each student is treated like an individual. As a result, every student will have something unique on their timetable and our behaviour policy reflects this individualised approach.
Our students have a wide range of academic abilities and spikey profiles (significant strengths in one part of the curriculum, and difficulties in another aspect). This is reflected in our wide and varied spiral curriculum. The vast majority of students join us in Year 7. A proportion of our Year 7 students have joined us having been out of education for more than 6 months.
Some of our Year 7 students have either not accessed class teaching or required a Learning Support Assistant (LSA) to do so.
In the school’s own words, from the school website.
Enrichment
14 activitiesiFound on the school website by WhatSchool. Not verified by Governance Register; the school website is the authority.- Book Club
- Chess
- Climbing
- Cooking
- Debating
- Drama
- Football
- Lego
- Minecraft
- Photography
- Kagan Cooperative Learning
- MindMate
- Philosophy for Children (P4C)
- Times Tables Rock Stars
Awards
3 awardsiFound on the school website by WhatSchool. Not verified by Governance Register; the school website is the authority.- Inclusion Quality MarkInclusion
- Leading Parent Partnership AwardWorking with families
- Healthy SchoolsHealth and wellbeing
Key facts
- URN
- 138380
- Type
- Free schools special
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Ages
- 11 to 19
- Gender
- Mixed
- Sixth form
- Has a sixth form
- Nursery
- No Nursery Classes
- Local authority
- Leeds
- Constituency
- Leeds Central and Headingley
- Setting
- Urban: Nearer to a major town or city
- Opened
- 2012
Governing body (0 current, 17 former)
iAcademy trust: local governing body and trust board.11 governors are linked to a profile (all confirmed).
Governors marked “Confirmed same person” have exactly the same forename and surname as the only officer of that name at the school’s own academy trust company on the Companies House register, so we treat them as the same person. The governance record itself comes from DfE.
Leadership
| Name | Role | How appointed | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mr Ian Rees Hughes Confirmed same person Former | TrusteeTrust board | Appointed by GB/board | since 2025 · term ended 2025 |
| Mr Matthew Charles Cryer Confirmed same person Former | TrusteeTrust board | Appointed by GB/board | since 2025 · term ended 2025 |
| Ms Kim Elizabeth McDonnell Former | TrusteeTrust board | Appointed by academy members | since 2024 · term ended 2025 |
| Mr Alan Dunwell Confirmed same person Former | TrusteeTrust board | Appointed by GB/board | since 2024 · term ended 2025 |
| Mr Michael Alderson Confirmed same person Former | TrusteeTrust board | Appointed by academy members | since 2024 · term ended 2025 |
| Mrs Victoria Sophie Coyle Confirmed same person Former | TrusteeTrust board | Appointed by academy members | since 2024 · term ended 2025 |
| Mr Darren Ian Cooper Confirmed same person Former | MemberTrust members | Foundation/sponsor members | since 2024 · term ended 2025 |
| Mrs Catherine Monica Parlett Confirmed same person Former | Chair of TrusteesTrust board | Appointed by academy members | since 2023 · term ended 2025 |
| Mrs Rebecca Helen McDonnell Confirmed same person Former | TrusteeTrust board | Appointed by GB/board | since 2022 · term ended 2025 |
| Mrs Emma Sullivan Confirmed same person Former | TrusteeTrust board | Ex-officio by virtue of office as headteacher/principal | since 2022 · term ended 2025 |
| Mrs Angela Dorothy Owen Former | MemberTrust members | Appointed by foundation/Trust | since 2019 · term ended 2025 |
| Mrs Emma Sullivan Confirmed same person Former | Accounting OfficerTrust officer | since 2018 · term ended 2025 | |
| Mrs Katherine Margaret Atkinson Former | Chief Financial OfficerTrust officer | since 2012 · term ended 2025 | |
| Mrs Rada Grkinic Confirmed same person Former | MemberTrust members | Original (signatory) members | since 2012 · term ended 2025 |
| Mrs Catherine Monica Parlett Confirmed same person Former | MemberTrust members | Original (signatory) members | since 2012 · term ended 2025 |
| Mrs Katherine Webber Confirmed same person Former | MemberTrust members | Original (signatory) members | since 2012 · term ended 2025 |
Full governing body
| Name | Role | How appointed | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mr Paul Staniland Former | Governance Professional - Single-Academy Trust (SAT)Governance professional | since 2021 · term ended 2025 |
Source: Department for Education, Get Information about Schools (governance records, as at 25 October 2026). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Names are shown as published; there are no addresses or contact details. Current and former are worked out from term end dates when the page loads. Object or ask for removal · Report an issue with this record