Expansion to ease pressure on places at special schools

Head backs ‘exciting’ plans for satellites

A head teacher has described the creation of two new school satellites for 40 special needs pupils as an “exciting development”.

The expansion of Canterbury’s St Nicholas School will take place over the next 10 months. About 270 pupils aged four to 19 currently study there. Kent County Council has permitted a restructure which will allow 32 children with special needs to be taught at Canterbury Academy while St John’s Primary School will host eight pupils.

St Nicholas School’s head teacher, Daniel Lewis, said: “There is enormous pressure on places in special schools at the moment and the satellites are a way for us to increase our capacity and meet the needs of more pupils.”

More than 50 parents support the satellite schemes, saying these will benefit their children through integration with mainstream schools.

Mr Lewis added: “We are excited by this development and have had a very positive response to the consultation.” However, objections were raised by eight parents, who voiced their concern over potential staff shortages and inadequate number of school places. But, a KCC paper states that additional staffing will be provided for the scheme, although exact numbers have yet to be revealed.

St Nicholas’s main school in Holm Oak Close was not deemed feasible for expansion due to the lack of on-site space to accommodate extra students. KCC will invest more than £500,000 into the creation of four new classrooms at Canterbury Academy. Construction work is already underway and school chiefs expect the rooms to be ready for use when the new crop of students start in September 2020. An existing classroom will be refurbished at St John’s and just over £24,000 will be used to finance this from historic, unclaimed, developer contributions.

Cllr Ida Linfield (Lib Dem), who represents the area at county level, gave her “full support” for the proposal during a public meeting.

‘The satellites are a way for us to increase our capacity and meet the needs of more pupils’