Our history

A working party was set up by the Department of Education and Science in 1961 to look into the potential for building a specialist national college for young people with disabilities. Three years later Coventry’s Department of Education was given the go-ahead for the project.

The city was chosen due to its central location and excellent transport links and in 1969 building work started on the Tile Hill site.

The college opened in September 1971 as ‘an experiment’ to see if it could improve outcomes for young people with physical disabilities but above average intellect who were underachieving in unsuitable educational facilities around the country.

With just 25 students on opening, it was initially given only three years to see whether it would prove a success. The rest, as they say, is history.

Key moments during the past five decades include British disability rights campaigner Sir Herbert William Massie graduating with A Levels in 1973, the opening of Hereward’s new residential accommodation in 2003 and the launch of our Premier Inn Training Centre in 2019.

Today, Hereward College has more than 350 full-time learners and has gone far beyond the original vision of providing better educational opportunities for young people with disabilities.