Signs warning drivers to be aware of deaf children near a special school that shut more than seven years ago are finally set to be taken down by the council.

There are at least two red triangle road signs on Church Road, near the entrance to the old Penn School site, warning drivers there could be deaf children in the area.

They are left over from when Penn School, which catered for children aged between 11 and 18 with communication difficulties, was still open.

But the day and boarding school shut down within weeks of a shock announcement that it had suffered a “considerable drop in student numbers and income” in July 2015 – leaving children crying and parents devastated.

Families fought desperately to save the school, but administrators Deloitte were called in to wind the school up – leaving staff without jobs and 74 students without a school place – and it was eventually sold to the government for more than £11 million a year later in 2016.

The government’s Education Funding Agency had plans to create a new free school on the site, but they eventually sold it, saying it was “surplus to requirements”.

It is now hoped the site will become a boutique hotel.

The presence of the road signs more than seven years after Penn School closed was mentioned in local resident Peter Brown’s blog at the beginning of the month.

He wrote: “It is six years ago this month since Penn School – a school for children with communication and hearing difficulties – closed down.

“And yet two road signs are still in place, one of them still merrily flashing amber warning signs every weekday at school arrival and departure time.

“Just how long does it take to remove what is now roadside clutter?”

The Bucks Free Press decided to ask Buckinghamshire Council when they were going to be taken down.

They said in a statement: “We have now been formally notified that the school will not re-open, so the sign will be removed within six to eight weeks.”

The former school is also known as Rayners, a country house that was built by solicitor and businessman Sir Philip Rose, a friend of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, in 1847.

Sir Philip died in 1883 and his son, also named Philip, inherited it. When he also passed away in 1919, the estate was sold for his 15-year-old son Humphrey.

It was bought by the London County Council for use as a school for deaf children, with the Homerton School for the Deaf transferring to Penn in 1921.

The name was changed to Rayners School, and pupils came from all over the country.

They were the profoundly deaf of both sexes, with ages ranging from five to 16, and many had additional difficulties. In 1960 the school was considerably enlarged, with new classrooms, a dining room and gymnasium, and girls’ dormitories.

In 1990 the Camden Local Education Authority took responsibility for the school, but in 1998 announced that they would cease to do so from August 1999.

The governors, staff, parents and pupils then began a campaign to prevent the closure of the school and the Rayners Special Educational Trust was formed. The Minister of State for Education then approved Penn School as a ‘’Non-maintained Special School’’ in 1999.