Linden Lodge School is a day and residential special needs school for students aged 2-19 with Vision and Multi-Sensory Impairment. They are located in Southfields, and consider prospective students from a wide area.
The education of students with sensory impairment is highly specialist and therefore they have specialist teachers, specialist curriculums and extensive specialist resources and facilities on our campus. These include:
Expectations for each pupil are high and we understand that each pupil with a Sensory Impairment has a unique diagnosis and learning profile. Linden Lodge wants their pupils to reach their potential and achieve as much independence as possible. Every pupil has, in addition to their curriculum targets, personal goals to optimise their use of Vision, Hearing and other Senses.
Expectations for each pupil are high and we understand that each pupil with a Sensory Impairment has a unique diagnosis and learning profile. Linden Lodge wants their pupils to reach their potential and achieve as much independence as possible. Every pupil has, in addition to their curriculum targets, personal goals to optimise their use of Vision, Hearing and other Senses.
https://www.lindenlodge.wandsworth.sch.uk/
In March 2025 Sarah Norris, one of the co-headteachers at Linden Lodge, visited Cherry Trees in East Clandon, Surrey and saw the cinema room facility that we had donated in 2023, with the help of installer Nethaus. When she found out this had been a gift from our industry she understandably wondered if the residential provision at Linden Lodge might be eligible for something similar. With this in mind, and soon after her visit to Cherry Trees, Sarah asked one of her colleagues to contact me and with busy schedules we set up a meeting early in September.
It was September 3rd that I met with Jackie Nolan and was introduced to, and shown around, Linden Lodge residential provision, Richley House. I also met some of the other members of staff and was very impressed with the size of the school and the incredible and hugely important work the school does helping children with visual and Multi-Sensory Impairments.
Whilst there I was shown a couple of rooms and there was one particular that could be transformed into something very special. This was the room that was selected…, but we needed the right installer to take this on.
Fortunately there was an installer very local to the school that had been keen to take on a Together For Cinema project so it was an easy call for me to make. However, this installation, with the many different sensory challenges of the users, was potentially more of a challenge than our standard installations.
In recent times I’d been in touch with Richard Chaffey and Simon Conner of FLUX and they were 100% up for getting involved with a Together For Cinema installation. Having heard a little more about Linden Lodge and what the installation entailed, as well as the impact it would make, they agreed to take on the installation and promised to deliver the right solutions as best they could. However, to clarify exactly what might need to be delivered we set up a further meeting with Richard to assess the room and this meeting took place on November 5th, 2025.
With the team from FLUX, as well as senior leaders from the residential provision at Linden Lodge, and myself in attendance, we had about 10 people involved in helping to design the room and specify what we might need. It became clear to me that this was not going to be a normal Together For Cinema installation!
Firstly, it was a school, with a residential provision so young people stay throughout the school year so the room would be used more than our average installations. The sensory needs clearly gave rise to some specialist commercial AV equipment, and structurally the room needed some modifications to make it safe and also to ensure the best experience for the users.
Richard Chaffey, FLUX’s Technical Director, undertook to project manage the installation and he was hugely excited by what he felt we could deliver. Ideas, changes, solutions…, so many were considered, dismissed and then considered again, until a design was eventually agreed upon and then came the discussion on which products we’d need to make it happen.
With varied needs and specific solutions the product list was extremely comprehensive, and there were companies listed that I hadn’t approached before, and likely weren’t that aware of what we do. This wasn’t a problem, but the process to secure all the products needed a little more attention than usual.
With so many items needed from many different suppliers this was always going to be a big ask, but it’s testimony to how FLUX are respected in the industry that between Richard and I we quickly had the majority of items we needed promised and available to us.
We approached many of our regular product donors such as ADI, Aldous, Alltrade, AVPro, Crestron, CUK, Future Automation, Habitech, iiyama, Peerless, Sonance, TDI Group and Webro, and all were fully behind the project and keen to help make it happen. Some new product donors were approached such as Ampetronic and Ultamation, and both companies were genuinely delighted to be approached and were more than happy to donate what was required to make this incredible room a reality.
With any installation such as this there are always certain building materials that are needed and since Selco awarded Together For Cinema one of their 2025 Community Hero Awards, they have been more than willing to support our installations. One quick email to my contacts and we had secured all we needed and a delivery date was set from their local branch. We have great relationships with most of the AV industry but ‘external’ relationships, like this with Selco, are also really important.
We are of course hugely grateful to all companies that donate to any Together For Cinema project but for Linden Lodge School this cinema / media room is a real bonus that they could never normally have afforded or imagined having. Thank you to all that donated and the kit list reads as follows…
Wednesday 5th August, 2026.
Friday 25th September, 2026
This took place on Tuesday October 13th and was attended by more than 25 people. It really was quite a gathering, and a wonderful celebration of what can happen when an industry unites to make a difference.
More to come….
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Richard Chaffey, Technical Director, FLUX London
“Within my capacity as Co-Headteacher, Health and Residential I try wherever possible to visit other provisions to review and reflect on our residential provision to see what if anything we could do to improve our students’ residential experiences. My visit to Cherry Trees in March 2025 was pure serendipity. When I saw their cinema room, I thought that this would enhance our students experiences and bring them together as a group to socialise every evening.
It was incredibly exciting to meet with Ian and FLUX and begin to explore the possibilities which seemed endless! The needs of our young people are varied as we support young people from across the school and multiple different curriculum pathways to include students that were working on adapted National Curriculum through to sensory based learners as well as deafblind students. All of our students have a degree of vision impairment although often accompanied with a high level of additional needs be it hearing, medical or cognitive. We highlighted our very broad and unique needs of our residential young people with a focus on accessibility through vision and hearing but it did not seem to deter any of the professionals from FLUX in fact the room was electric with excitement planning what could be put in place.
The whole process has been fantastic! Getting to know Richard and his colleagues from FLUX has been a privilege and joy. Their commitment to providing us with an incredible cinema room has known no bounds. Their attention to detail and dedication to the project has been incredible.
We are deeply grateful for the generous donation from Together for Cinema and all that FLUX has done to make this incredible cinema room so accessible for our young people. I know it will be used daily to bring together our students to socialise and enjoy their down time after a full day of school.”
Sarah Norris, Co-Headteacher, Linden Lodge School
THANK YOU…, you have helped make a real difference at Linden Lodge School, and in turn, have made a real difference to so many people’s lives for many years to come.
We’re all aware that charities have to work very hard to secure the funding for most of their operational costs. With the comprehensive and considered cradling of a family through tough times, there is little monies left over for luxuries such as a cinema room.
For Linden Lodge School this new cinema / media room is a wonderful addition to their facility and at a normal cost of around £100,000, is something that would never be considered as a possibility. For Together For Cinema and our industry to deliver a tailored solution that offers so many much needed technical solutions is something we’re all very proud of. As of today, October 2026, this is our highest value and most technically comprehensive installation, and we are delighted to know that it will be used, enjoyed and valued for many years to come.
This was Together for Cinema’s 62nd good cause cinema room installation and helped take the Together for Cinema good cause community delivery to very nearly £1.7m worth of installations, had they all been paid for.
For Richard Chaffey and his team, this is a gift that all at the school will enjoy for many years to come. Be it movie time, gaming, karaoke, training, fundraising, teaching etc…, the room will be used regularly, and for many different purposes. Most importantly of all, it will help cradle the sensory developmental journeys of the children at the school, and help bring lots of happiness and good times to the children and of course the staff.
Thank you again Richard and all at FLUX London for taking this on and I hope the ‘feel good’ factor of being involved in such a project, and making a difference to so many lives, is worth more than any payment.
Report created by Ian Morrish. All quotes to be from Ian Morrish, unless otherwise stated.
For further details please contact Ian Morrish at ian@togetherforcinema.co.uk
www.togetherforcinema.co.uk
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