By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Plans for a new 200-pupil school have been given a £20m funding boost.
Gloucestershire County Council leaders approved yesterday (March 5) the funding for a new special school for children aged 4 to 16 to be built in Cheltenham.
Cabinet agreed to allocate £20 million to set up the new school for children and young people with complex learning difficulties in the spa town.
The plan is for the ‘all-through’ school for up to 200 primary and secondary pupils to open in 2028.
It will be built on land owned by the county council, at Alstone Croft, accessed from Arle Road.
The council says there continues to be an increasing need for special school places in the county, with the highest number of places needed in
Gloucester and Cheltenham, and at a location within easy reach of other parts of the county.
The shortage of places locally means some children currently travel to schools out of county or to independent schools to have their educational needs met.
With the approval of this scheme, the county council will have committed to deliver an additional 540 special school places since2022.
Two new special schools, Brook Academy in Brockworth, and Sladewood in Stroud, have already been opened and provide 80 and 60 school places respectively.
The recently approved special school to open in Gloucester at Wheatridge East will deliver a further 200 places.
The council has invested around £50 million during this time to extend the number of special school places in the county.
It has also invested £2.7 million in recent years to create additional places at existing special schools across the county, such as Belmont School in Cheltenham and Alderman Knight School in Tewkesbury and delivered extra accommodation at Heart of the Forest Special School
In addition, a further £2.3 million will be spent on supporting children and young people on the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) waiting list for a school place.
Council leader Stephen Davies (C, Hardwicke and Severn) said: “We are committed to making sure children and young people in our county get the specialist education they need at a school closer to where they live.
“This £20 million investment will provide a further 200 specialist school places in Gloucestershire. This will bring the number of new special school places to 540 since 2022.”
County Councillor David Willingham (LD, St Mark’s and St Peter’s), who represents the area, is generally supportive of the plan.
He says there is a clear need for more special school places in Cheltenham.
“This former school playing field has been vacant for many years,” he said.
“However, local residents are likely to have some concerns about issues such as access arrangements or site management, so I have asked the council to clarify some points.
“I hope the council will also use this development as the impetus to review capacity and safety at the nearby Grevil Road/Princess Elizabeth Way junction, as turning out of Grevil Road is already difficult at peak times, and a new school is likely to add more peak journeys.”
The council says it will work closely with partners such as Cheltenham Borough Council and other key stakeholders, like the Parent Carer Forum, to make sure that local residents and parents in the SEND community have the opportunity to give feedback on plans for the school.
The school building will be designed to operate at net zero carbon emissions in line with the county council’s pledge to reduce Gloucestershire’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2030.