A new residential school for autistic children at Condover Hall, Shrewsbury, will create 255 new jobs. The Chronicle revealed last week that The Priory Group had bought the former school for the blind. Director of schools for the group, Stephen Bradshaw, said the Grade 1 listed building was bought for £5 million and another £5 million will be spent on refurbishment. The building will house 30 children with autism and a further education college for 80 pupils with Asperger’s syndrome. It was expected that the school would open in November and 255 jobs would be available over two and a half years. ‘We will be writing to all the people that were employed by the RNIB – the quality of staff is paramount,’ said Mr. Bradshaw.
Shrewsbury Chronicle, March 3, 2005

A Government Minister has met Newham pupils, parents and teachers to see the work being done to include children with special needs in mainstream education. Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families, Lord Filkin, visited the borough to see how Newham has promoted Government policy on inclusion. He met young people who have been through an inclusive education system and also spoke to parents and special educational needs officers. Newham was among the first local authority to introduce inclusive education. More than 95 per cent of pupils with special educational needs attend mainstream schools, one of the highest proportions in England.
Docklands Express, March 5, 2005

The Tories will halt the closure of special schools as part of an overhaul of special needs education provision, if elected, Mr. Howard will announce today. The party will also abolish Labour’s inclusion policy which encourages the integration of special needs pupils into mainstream schools. Parents would be offered greater choice, he said. Mr. Howard has accused the Government of directing such children into mainstream education that may not be appropriate for them. ‘The fashionable presumption that children with special needs all go into mainstream education is wrong – as many parents and teachers will tell you,’ he will say.
Daily Mail, March 7, 2005

Primary children in Wigan have been laying foundations for the future. Pupils of Hindley Junior and Infants School toured the building site of their new £3.5 million school for a taste of what life will be like from September. Children and staff from the Long Lane School will be moving to their new home in Argyle Street, Hindley, after the summer holidays. The new primary is at the forefront of Wigan education authority’s plans to teach more children with special needs in mainstream schools. It will have additional facilities for children with medical needs including a hydrotherapy pool.
Wigan Evening Post, March 7, 2005

Spending on special needs education has risen from £2.7bn to £3.8bn in the past five years, according to Labour. And 141 special schools have closed in the seven years since before Labour won power in 1997 and 93 have closed in the seven years since. The information was released to coincide with the Tory election press conference on education which featured Maria Hutchings, the mother of a ten-year-old autistic boy who has attacked the Government’s approach to special needs education. The Tories admitted that some of Mrs. Hutching’s problems were caused by Tory controlled Essex Council, that Tory-run Wandsworth is to close a special school and that the policy of teaching all children in mainstream schools where possible began before Labour won in 1997.
The Independent, March 8, 2005

Parents have told of their anger at the closure of their children’s special needs school. Council bosses have agreed to shut Western Park School in Leicester because of falling pupil numbers. Parents now fear they may struggle to find places for their children who have physical and behavioural difficulties. Just 28 children were expected to still be on the roll in September. Had the school stayed open, it would have cost Leicester Education Authority around £100,000 a year to subsidise.
Leicester Mail, March 17, 2005

Special needs teachers in Merseyside may strike over the planned closure of their schools, it emerged last night. Union policy says staff at special schools are exempt from industrial action and teachers in the region have never resorted to such action before. But last night the National Union for Teachers’ Liverpool branch said its members of Complex Learning Difficulty Schools were prepared to strike for the sake of their pupils. The first of four CLD schools in Liverpool, Watergate Special School, is due to close in September. The rest of the CLD schools and ten of 14 other special schools are all expected to be closed by 2010. Liverpool City Council Executive member, Coun. Paul Clein, said: ‘Quite frankly the suggestion that teachers will strike is bizarre. The fact is if we don’t close Watergate it will wither and we will be forced to make redundancies. The steps we are proposing to make will safeguard those jobs.’
Liverpool Daily Post, March 15, 2005

Many delegates at the annual conference in Brighton of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers blame problems with behaviour on the Government’s inclusion policy. According to Peter Tippets from Hampshire just one child with behaviour difficulties in a class can disrupt the education of all the others. The union voted unanimously to call for a reversal of the policy of including violent and disruptive pupils in mainstream schools. It also urged automatic and permanent exclusion for violent and disruptive pupils.
Daily Telegraph, March 30, 2005