June 19, 2024, Manchester Evening News: Huge school expansion to create 'desperately required' places for children with special educational needs
NW England
Green Fold school site will become an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) unit able to accommodate up to 85 children
Two school sites are to be expanded with more than £8M [$10M] spent creating ‘desperately needed’ places for children with special educational needs. Bolton council’s planning committee this week approved planning permission for the work at Cherry Tree School and Green Fold schools which operate across two sites known as the lower and upper Orchards, in Farnworth.
At Green Fold, a single storey side extension will be built which will cater for the education of 85 pupils, an increase in 23. The work will lead to a relocation of 83 nursery age pupils to the Cherry Tree site on Highfield Road with an increase of four full-time staff to 66.
The Green Fold site will become a consolidated Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) unit. A Bolton council planning meeting heard the work will consolidate the education provided over the two sites.
At the Cherry Tree site another single storey extension will provide two new reception classrooms, two nursery areas, a dedicated nursery entrance, a high needs classroom and a classroom. The existing playground space will be divided using new fencing to create dedicated play areas.
A Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) will be built to compensate for the outside play space lost to the extension. In February this year, it emerged that the expected cost of the project had risen from an initial estimate of £6.8m to a revised £8.6m.
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