Train carriage to be turned into community cafe

A train carriage will be turned into a community cafe at a school for pupils with special educational needs.

Five Acre Wood school has been granted planning permission for the venture at its campus in Loose near Maidstone.

Pupils will staff the cafe, which will be called the FAWrient Express.

Headteacher Tim Williams said it would become a “hospitality training academy”.

The school, which has 807 pupils, caters for those with moderate, severe, profound or complex learning difficulties and autism.

Mr Williams said it would be a "fully functioning cafe" where pupils would receive hospitality training that would enable them to be "industry ready and provide a pathway to employment.”

He added: "It’s where our pupils with learning difficulties can prepare, serve and sell affordable drinks to parents, visitors and the local community"

Mr Williams has called on the community to get involved in helping refurbish the carriage.

“We’d love if trades and companies in the area can get behind us, to help us renovate it, because it will need renovation to bring it up to the specification that we would like and that our pupils deserve.

The carriage is due to be installed at the school site in July and the cafe will open at a date yet to be confirmed.

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