TWO Cumbria special schools are set to benefit from an investment of nearly £1 million from Cumbria County Council, creating new sixth form facilities.

The investment is designed to address rising demand for special educational needs support in Cumbria and has been described as “a huge positive difference.”

It will see the creation of a new sixth form facility for Mayfield, an oversubscribed SEN school in Whitehaven.

St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Cockermouth will be transformed into the facility after being marked for closure in August due dwindling pupil numbers.

St Edmund’s Church on Orton Road will be given new purpose, meeting the needs of young people with special educational needs in Carlisle.

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Cumbria County Council said that it will lease both sites from the Diocese of Lancaster.

Sam Kidd, Headteacher at Mayfield School said: “This joint venture allows the very best opportunities for the young people of Mayfield. The location is in the centre of a thriving community with extensive community links and amazing grounds and planned facilities.”

The new facility allows Mayfield to increase from 197 to 230 places and James Rennie to increase from 159 to 195.

Work on both sites is set to begin soon and is expected to be complete by early 2023.

“Our young people will be able to access meaningful workplace and volunteering links as well as being able to be fully prepared for independent life opportunities such as accessing public transport, libraries, cafes etc.

“Mayfield Governors are delighted with this new chapter in the life of the school and our pupils, staff and parents have been overwhelmingly supportive.”

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Cllr Sue Sanderson, the council’s cabinet member for Schools and Education, said: “It’s so important that we create more space in our special schools and this is an innovative way of doing that.

“The new sixth forms will provide bespoke facilities for older children to help them prepare for the next steps into adult life and wherever that might take them. I’m excited to see them take shape and certain they will make a huge positive difference to pupil’s lives.”

Ruth Ramsay of Cleator Moor is just one of the parents who has previously had to fight for a place for her son Dylan. She now works with the charity Bee Unique to support parents in navigating the SEN system.

She said: “It's brilliant that more is being done, but Mayfield is a very busy school and can't keep squeezing extra children in indefinitely. There's a long way to go. A longer-term plan to train more teachers and one to one's in SEN and build more specialist facilities is needed to match the percentage of children in our County who need the support. This is not just in Cumbria, it's a nationwide problem.”

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