Aged just 15, Dom Cardoso would have expected to have been back at school with his friends after the festive break.

But instead, the teenager, who is deaf, finds himself at home in Cricketers Close, Kemsley, with his mum because his specialist school in Margate shut unexpectedly just before Christmas.

He is one of more than 50 pupils in Kent and beyond left without a school due to the sudden closure – and his family might now have to move home so he can continue his education.

Mum Maria said: “It’s heart-breaking. He cannot speak. He’s a British Sign Language signer.

"I have learned it so I can sign with him and, at the moment, I am his world. No one else can sign. He’s desperate.

“He’s so lonely now. The longer it goes on, the more isolated he’s going to get.”

Dom had been a pupil at The Royal School for Deaf Children – the only school of its kind in Kent – for eight years.

They also tried a mainstream school in Folkestone but it had not worked, as his hearing disability, coupled with learning difficulties, meant he needed specialist provision.

He transferred to Meadowfield special school in Sittingbourne, but despite the distance, Margate was deemed the best option and Dom travelled there by taxi, picking up his friend and fellow pupil Josh, from Faversham, on the way.

Maria said: “It was a school first but it was also a family.

"It had everything – audiology, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, everything a child with disabilities would need – it was there and all readily available.

“He was embraced by this deaf community.”

The school was set up in 1792 and, at the time of its closure, educated 55 pupils, some of whom lived there.

But the John Townsend Trust, which ran the school, went into administration in December after restructuring failed to solve its financial problems.

An appeal was launched to save the school but could not prevent it closing on December 11.

“It was so sudden, so there were no goodbyes,” said Maria, a volunteer co-ordinator for Hi Kent, a charity supporting people with hearing problems.

The only school offering similar provision is said to be Hamilton Lodge School and College in Brighton.

A KCC spokesman said: “Our Special Educational Needs (SEN) staff have been working very hard to find suitable placements for all the children.

“Onward pathways have been proposed for all these children and we are exploring all options with parents and carers.

“KCC meets the cost of their SEN provision and transport to the nearest appropriate school that meets the child’s needs.

"When parents ask us to change the school named in their child’s Statement of SEN, or EHC (Education Care and Health) Plan, and we are unable to agree, it would generate a right of appeal which we would always explain in writing, in a letter setting out our decision.”