(UK) Sheppey: Proposal for new special primary school for 50 kids

Dec 5, 2021, Kent Online: Sheppey to get new special primary school for SEN pupils https://www.kentonline.co.uk/sheerness/news/plans-for-desperately-needed-special-primary-school-258532/

SE England

A new special primary school - the first of its kind on the Island - is proposed to open on Sheppey in 2025/26, it has been revealed. The primary school would cater for 50 young people with special educational needs (SEN) and would either be an expansion of an existing school or a standalone “satellite” site. The plans have been set out in Kent County Council’s (KCC) Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent for 2022 to 2026. Cllr Cameron Beart (Con), who is a member of the Children’s, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee at KCC, was recently asked to consider and endorse the plan. Since then, he has written to Shellina Prendergast, KCC’s cabinet member for education and skills, to express his view that a SEN primary school on Sheppey is “welcomed and desperately needed”, but that he would prefer to see it as a satellite site. Special school provision in Swale is increasingly in need. Sittingbourne mum Carol Angus was forced to keep her daughter off school for several months as she was unable to afford the £500-a-week taxi fares to a special school in Sevenoaks, 30 miles away, despite KCC's promise to reimburse her…. If approved, it will be built on the former Danley Middle School site in Halfway Road, Halfway, and cater for 120 11 to 16-year-olds who have social, emotional and mental health difficulties including those with autism and communication difficulties. KCC’s commissioning plan sets out that the new secondary school is set to open by 2023/24. Cllr Beart added: “I’ve also expressed concerns about expanding the proposed secondary school to accommodate primary provision, especially as that expansion room may be needed