(UK) Stevenage: New special school; 448 new places; $104M over next 5 yrs

June 28, 2023, Hertfordshire.gov: SEND students in Stevenage visit their new school https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/about-the-council/news/news-archive/valley-school-topping-out

Stevenage’s state of the art school for SEND pupils nears completion

On Monday 26 June, pupils from the Valley School joined county councillors, school staff, contractors and project officers to get a unique view of Stevenage from the top of their new school.

The celebratory ‘topping out’ event, marks the completion of the roof, which is a significant milestone in the development this multi-million-pound school for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND)….

We can’t wait to come into the new school so that students get the quality of provision they deserve. There are just so many different parts of the school which are going to bring so much joy to so many different children. As the head teacher it is amazing that we will be able to complement our high-quality teaching with a learning environment that our young people can really enjoy.

This is a tremendous milestone in our commitment to invest and expand provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, which equates to more than £82 million [$104M] over the next five years….

This future expansion is in addition to having increased the number of places at special schools by 448 in the last five years.

Rising to tackle the increase in the number of children with SEND across the county, we have also recently proposed an additional investment of £5 million [$6.3M] into our statutory SEND service to make sure that children and young people have their additional needs identified and regularly assessed (through the maintenance of Education and Health Care Plans - EHCPs)…