Since 2017, Esteem has been working with Hull City Council to improve facilities for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Having produced a SEND Sufficiency Strategy identifying the need for more variety of learning environments, over the past few years we’ve been working together to ensure sufficient specialist school places are available to those pupils that need them.
Works have just started at our project at Ganton Secondary School, where we’ll be creating a dedicated SEND Unit to support an additional 20 pupils who are to be accommodated within the school.
Ganton School, whose primary and secondary provisions are split between two sites, provides special education for young people in the west of Hull. Children attending the school have an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and are allocated places based on consultations between the school and local authority. The primary need of pupils who attend the school is speech and language communication needs, but a significant number also have autism spectrum disorder and moderate learning difficulties.
The project will add a new modular building to the school site, providing a dedicated SEND Unit and resource base to accommodate 20 SEND pupils. Work started on site at the end of April, and should be complete by early September.
Alec Young, Headteacher at Ganton School, said:
“The development of two bespoke modular learning spaces will mean that Ganton School can offer 20 children the opportunity to attend a specialist provision that will meet their needs, providing them with the chance to thrive both now and for years to come. The project is an excellent example of how good collaboration can result in real life outcomes for the most vulnerable children and young adults in our area.”