Plans to expand Beaucroft School and increase provision for children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities has been given the go-ahead by Dorset Council’s Cabinet today (27 July 2021).
The plans to expand Beaucroft School fall under a wider ranging bold and ambitious £37.5m plan to provide the best education for Dorset’s children with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND). This funding has been secured for the next five years to help deliver projects across Dorset localities that will ensure the best education for all, through the creation of new special schools with fantastic facilities, and the expansion of high quality provision at Dorset’s existing excellent special schools.
Today, councillors approved the initial proposals for the former Wimborne First School site to be used to increase the capacity of Beaucroft School, with the aim of creating additional specialist provision for children and young people with SEND.
The proposed expansion of the Beaucroft Foundation School will result in up to 80 additional places for Dorset children and young people, with a particular focus on those in post-16 education.
Increasing local, specialist provision will help reduce the council’s need for costly independent placements and will allow more young people to be educated closer to home, and in their local communities, with their friends and neighbours.
The paper presented, outlined the proposed project to create an ambitious learning environment for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability, and sought agreement to use the premises for this purpose. Councillors have also approved the budget allocation to allow the project to proceed to the next phase.
A four-week formal consultation period will now take place, and then a report will be brought back to Dorset Council’s Cabinet for a final decision.
Cllr Andrew Parry, Dorset Council Portfolio Holder for Children, Education and Early Help, said: “I am absolutely delighted that the plans, at this stage, have received Cabinet support. The expansion of Beaucroft School is a great opportunity to expand on one of Dorset’s existing special schools, enabling more of Dorset’s children to receive their education closer to home. It will be a welcome boost to meeting SEND sufficiency.”
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It is great that Beaucroft is being considered to take more pupils, it is a facility that is greatly needed in the local and Dorset area. However, my only concern is how the traffic will be managed around the old first school. The traffic situation by Beaucroft School in Colehill is an absolute nightmare and quite dangerous on a daily basis. This is a situation that needs careful consideration at the new site as it is near a very busy through road for the town with lots of children from the middle school crossing at the same time as mini buses and parents would be picking up from the new site and other schools in the area.
Hi Stephanie, we understand your concerns and want to enable a safe environment for those attending the school and road users. We are working with the school on options and are looking at using the local public car park, close to the site. This would enable minibuses to drop off and collect from the car park, with students walking to and from the site via two safe walking routes.
An area on the existing school site will also be available for overspill parking for visiting professional specialists. Claire