Governors and head teachers are giving plans to integrate more Gloucestershire children with special needs into mainstream schools a favourable response, it has been claimed. Education Director, Roger Crouch, says consultations on the county’s draft development plan for special needs education have revealed that schools chiefs are happy — provided they are convinced the money will be available to provide the right facilities and teaching. The proposed closure of the four area special schools is the most controversial issue to come before the Education Committee for some time. It has led to the formation by parents of the Special Schools Protection League.
Gloucester Citizen, July 7, 1999.

Slades Farm School for children with emotional and behaviour difficulties will be closed pending consultation, Bournemouth Councillors have decided. At their Education Committee meeting last week, members approved a decision to close the school. Consultation with parents, teachers, and the community will take place but unless strong objections are raised the plan will go ahead. The Council has successfully bid for £443,000 in Standards Fund money to open out-reach, one-to-one programmes in mainstream schools. Children from Slades will be transferred to mainstream and the empty building will be used for training and support for specialist teachers. Councillor Phil Carey, a governor at Slades Farm, said that children with greater problems could also be taught at the resource base on a temporary basis.
The Daily Echo, July 12, 1999.

Pupils at a South Wales school realised deaf classmates could be in danger if a fire broke out because they could not hear the alarm. So the caring Year 5 pupils at Hollybush Primary, in Cwmbran, came up with a sensational idea. Their vibrating alarms — which can be worn in a variety of ways such as wrist bands and badges — have now won them a place in the finals of the prestigious 3M Primary Innovation Awards competition. Hearing impaired children from all over Gwent attend Hollybush school where they are integrated into classes. Signing teachers work alongside class teachers to support the children.
South Wales Argus, July 13, 1999.

A determined 12-year-old has won a qualification in sign language — so she can talk with her 11-year-old cousin who is deaf. Despite opposition from a teacher who thought she was too young to learn the language, Samantha Speight, started a Leeds College course two years ago to learn the skill which would overcome the barrier between her and her profoundly deaf cousin, Matthew Barron. The two have been friends since they were toddlers. They live close together and are growing up together. Samantha’s mother Lisa said she wanted to learn sign language because it is Matthew’s first language.
Yorkshire Evening Post, Leeds, July 15, 1999.

Parents protested outside Yorkshire’s only school for blind children yesterday over plans to merge it with two mainstream schools. Children from all over the county go to Temple Bank School in Bradford which was saved from closure last year after a campaign by parents. They are uniting again to oppose Bradford Council’s plans for the pupils to be taught in two new mainstream schools and for Temple Bank to become a resouce unit. One parents said she wanted Temple Bank to retain its special status because that is what made it a success. Without special status parents would not be attracted to it and it would be effectively ‘killed off’. Head teacher Rick Neal has welcomed the proposals. Governors have also come out in favour of going into partnership with other schools.
Yorkshire Post, July 17, 1999.

A High Court judge has thrown out calls for an independent inquiry into a special school in Swansea. The parents of a terminally ill five-year-old girl failed to earn a judicial review into the school’s alleged non-resuscitation policy for terminally ill childen. They withdrew the girl from the school, Ysgol Crug Glas, because they claim the policy would have resulted in her being left to die. It now looks like the case will go to the Court of Appeal. Mr Justice Sullivan dismissed their call saying the policy of denying immediate resuscitation was only in place for a short period in late March and early April. But Nigel Pleming QC for the grandparents said the policy should not have been in place at all. The grandparents were entitled to an independent inquiry to satisfy them it was safe for their grand-daughter to return to school.
South Wales Evening Post, July 20, 1999.

A petition against plans to review the future of special schools in Sandwell, Midlands, was presented to education chiefs yesterday. More than 500 pupils from Millfield School have registered their protest. They claim their children’s education is suffering because of uncertainty surrounding the borough’s 11 special schools. An Education Department spokesman said: ‘Nothing is cut and dried. There will be genuine consultation before anything is decided.’
Birmingham Post, July 23, 1999.

Controversial plans to close Sunderland’s Barbara Priestman Special School and seven other special schools have been kicked out by the Government. Schools Minister, Charles Clarke, today ordered City Councillors to re-think their £12 million proposals to integrate special needs youngsters into mainstream schools. The decision will save eight schools from closure and block plans by four others to establish their own additional special needs facilities. Mr. Clarke credited the mountain of objections as the main reason for his landmark move to resist the Council’s blueprint. Sunderland South MP Chris Mullen said: ‘The government is clearly not satisfied that suitable alternative provision was being made for Barbara Priestman pupils in mainstream schools.’ He added that it was almost unprecedented for ministers to block a council which was following the government policy to integrate special needs pupils into mainstream schools.
Sunderland Echo, July 23, 1999.