Special school eyes a move to Blyth Bebside site

Posted by The Journal on Mar 29, 10 11:12 AM in News

A special school in Northumberland which celebrated its centenary last year looks set to move to a new site.

Education bosses are proposing to relocate East Hartford School near Cramlington - which has catered for youngsters with complex learning difficulties for 20 years - to the Bebside Middle School buildings in Blyth.

Bebside Middle School

Bebside Middle School

The Blyth school will close in August this year as part of the town's switch to a two-tier education system, making it available for occupation by pupils with special educational needs.

East Hartford School currently has space for 54 youngsters aged four to 11, most of them with moderate learning difficulties but some who have behaviour and emotional problems.

County council education officials say the school is now inadequate to meet the curricular and behaviour management needs of its pupils, but cannot be extended because of a lack of space and poor access.

Instead, it is proposed to relocate the facility to nearby Bebside Middle, where only minor internal work is needed to meet the growing demands and complexities of the pupils now being referred to East Hartford.

Next month the council's executive is expected to launch a five-week public consultation on the proposal, including holding a meeting for residents living near Bebside Middle.

East Hartford School opened in 1909 as a mainstream school which was attended mainly by local children. In the late 1980s it became a special school, catering for primary age pupils with a range of problems.

A report to the county council executive says the limitations of the existing building has been a problem for some time, and the opportunity has now arisen to improve the learning environment for pupils.

The site is remote and the move to Blyth would also mean additional accommodation for other special needs youngsters currently being taught in mainstream schools, or at home.

The governors at East Hartford School have agreed to fund the improvement work at Bebside Middle from their own budget, meaning there will be no cost to the council's capital programme.

A report to the executive by school organisation officer, Lorraine Fife, says the switch to Blyth will improve education provision for an "extremely needy group of children and young people".

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