Two North Derbyshire schools are set to gain new classrooms specifically for children with special educational needs.
Both Swanwick School & Sports College and Pilsley Primary School in Chesterfield are set to gain more classroom space in which to provide specialist support.
Children with special educational needs often need carefully designed classroom space in which to study, which can include a quieter work environment with fewer distractions.
Derbyshire County Council is to spend £625,000 on a new classroom extension on the Swanick College site to provide eight additional school spaces along with further future expansion.
It is also set to spend £855,000 on a new classroom, remodelling and a sensory pod at Pilsley Primary School.
The council details that one of the mainstream classrooms was converted into an “enhanced resource space” but that this has not “created pressure on mainstream capacity” – space for the general school population – so it will revert back to its previous use.
It says the new classroom and accompanying sensory pod will enhance support at the school for pupils with special educational needs.
The authority says the improvements will help “ensure the council meets its duty to ensure there are sufficient places and improve existing provision in the county for children and young people with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities), particularly those with more complex needs, and for those pupils that require alternative provision”.
Last month the county council submitted plans for a new block of four classrooms at the fairly recently built Tibshelf School, all of which would be used to support children with special educational needs.
It detailed that a significant addition to the school was already needed after a decade due to it catering for more children with special educational needs than it anticipated.
Papers submitted on behalf of the council said the current facilities and support for children with special educational needs were “oversubscribed”.
