|
Following the seven-year SEN reorganisation strategy
consultation, five special schools in Lambeth were closed and two new special
schools, for pupils with multiple and complex needs, opened to house most of
their pupils
. Parents had given their reluctant support to the
strategy, accepting that the nature of the borough's SEN provision no longer
matched need. The student populations of the new schools included higher
numbers of children with severe physical/mobility challenges (45 of whom had
attended the Thurlow Park Special School until it was closed) combined with
SLD/PMLD.
A typical student will use standing frame, walking
frame, wheelchair and at least one type of special seating. Imagine how much
space is required to house such equipment for a large young adult. Both schools
also house a significant number of pupils on the autistic spectrum with SLD.
What no one could have anticipated was that the
funding identified as required (1) to enlarge and refurbish the primary school
(formerly Windmill School) and (2) to move the secondary school (formerly
Shelley School) to the Thurlow Park/Elm Court site would simply vanish.
The primary, The Livity School, faced difficulties,
opening eleven days late in September 2001. There are ongoing accommodation
issues.
The secondary, The Michael Tippett School, occupies
premises deemed by OfSTED to be "accommodation (that) is not suitable for the
effective teaching of the full secondary curriculum", lacking specialist rooms
inside and appropriate leisure/games facilities outside (December 1998 OfSTED
report when Shelley School had 35 pupils on the site). The Michael Tippett
School has over 60 students. It has gone into special measures following its
January 2003 OfSTED inspection.
As parents of children attending these schools, we
feel that they have been forgotten. You [ Lambeth Teacher] applaud the
opening of the 'Norwood Secondary Centre' in what was Grove House (HI) Special
School.
Grove House was part of the Thurlow Park, a.k.a. 'Elm
Court', complex of buildings constructed to be fully-accessible to those with
special needs. The site is restricted to educational use under covenants. It
incorporates a very large hydrotherapy pool.Our children benefited from
regular, frequent access to it. The Thurlow Park (PH) School building has
deteriorated from disuse. Valuable physiotherapy and other equipment was left
inside the premises.
We do not know what has become of the Braidwood
Audiology Centre, an accessible building next to Grove House School. Specialist
staff are no longer based there. In the SEN reorganisation strategy, the
Thurlow Park site was designated for use by the borough's secondary school for
students with complex needs, The Michael Tippett School.
For want of those timely funds in Summer 2001 (one
head rolled in the council's finance department as a result, we believe), the
strategy has been discredited through poor implementation. The special
education of well over 100 of the borough's most vulnerable children and the
success of two of its schools has been jeopardised as a result.
Parents of children at both schools are grateful to
staff for continuing to give of their best in such adverse conditions. With
special measures in place at The Michael Tippett School, we expect the LEA to
focus at last on resolving the financial difficulties that have stood in the
way of the school's move to its designated site.
Some students rarely leave their homes except to go
to school. We hope that at Thurlow Park, they will enjoy the green grass and a
more spacious environment than they have had so far. We cannot believe that
anybody, let alone teaching professionals, would approve the dedication of
purpose-built, fully wheelchair-accessible school buildings and grounds for
mainstream use, knowing that students with physical disabilities in special
schools were overcrowded and being educated in unsuitable surroundings.
Hopefully, common sense will prevail. |
