(UK) Wales: $30M special school to open in 2026

Aug 21, 2025, Penarth Times: New Cosmeston special school now set to open next year

https://www.penarthtimes.co.uk/news/25402306.new-cosmeston-special-school-now-set-open-next-year

Work to expand a BBC documentary-featuring special needs school in Wales won’t be completed until next year after being affected by delays.

Vale of Glamorgan Council has confirmed that the new expected opening date for Ysgol Llyn Derw in Cosmeston is now May 2026.

It was reported in August 2024 that the expected completion date for the new special needs school, which will be the second site to Ysgol y Deri, was summer 2025.

This was before the construction firm behind the development, ISG, went into administration in September 2024. . . .

Council cabinet members approved plans to expand Ysgol y Deri with a new site in April 2021.

The head teacher of the special needs school, which featured in BBC documentary A Special School, argued in the past that more space was desperately needed there. . . .

The £22m [$30M] new school build will provide space for an additional 150 pupils with additional learning needs.

When we asked the leader of Vale of Glamorgan Council, Cllr Lis Burnett, last year about the collapse of ISG she said it was devastating, adding: “We know a lot of the people in ISG and we are really sad that they have all lost their jobs.

“This happens but what we will say… is two of our housing developments were ones that failed under previous developers and we took them on and not only have we delivered them but we brought them back on time by developing.

“By the time we knew that ISG were going through we already were having conversations with other people.

“Having worked with the new developers previously I can’t foresee. . . .