Next steps for Larkrise

The Secretary of State consented to publish proposals to establish a new maintained special school in Wiltshire. The next stage to shape the future of special school provision in the north began on Monday 2nd September 2019 with a statutory consultation which closed on 30th September 2019.

To help parent carers and interested persons to have their say, WPCC facilitated a webinar. In summary the proposal for Larkrise, St Nicholas and Rowdeford are as follows:
Wiltshire Council proposes to invest £32m in special education needs and disabilities by building up to 400 additional and remodeled places on the Rowdeford site by 2023, to increase capacity for SEND students with complex needs.
•Wiltshire Council proposes to bring Larkrise, St Nicholas and Rowdeford special schools together under a single integrated leadership team by 2021.
•The current Larkrise, St. Nicholas and Rowdeford sites will remain open for the time being, but will operate as a single school across the three sites under a single integrated leadership team.
•To achieve this legal amalgamation, the schools will be closed as individual schools and then re-opened as one school on three sites.

Following the successful Special Schools webinar consultation and a productive meeting with Larkrise Sch ool Governor Emily Wadds, Ellen Nicholson, South West Wiltshire's Parliamentary Candidate for the Lib Dems has collaborated with Keep Special Schools Local on the next steps for Larkrise school and provided research for the governors on where collaborative special needs schools have merged and thrived in the UK.

The first Shadow Governing Body of the three merged schools meets this week on Tuesday 5th November with the proposals going to Wiltshire to Cabinet on the 19th November 2019.