Neath Port Talbot Council is planning to build a new special school for children aged 7-16 to cope with a huge rise in pupils with additional learning needs.
If approved, the school will be a new build funded through the 21st Century Schools programme in addition to those already planned.
According to papers going before the council’s education cabinet board on Thursday July 4, the school will cater for around 100 pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.
It will be designed specifically for pupils with complex needs with potential facilities involving therapeutic rooms, chill out/quiet zones and cookery kitchens as well as a nature reserve, animal welfare space and outdoor classroom.
There may also be opportunities for educational respite and residential courses.
Possible sites for the school have yet to be identified and officers say a full consultation will take place if funding is approved.
On Thursday councillors will be asked to approve plans to write to Welsh Government to amend its original Band B school proposals to include the new school.
Officers said it is needed due to growing numbers of pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties – and would help the council as it implements the new additional learning needs reform.
According to recent figures, the number of pupils in the county with autistic spectrum disorder has almost doubled since 2012 while the number of pupils with speech, language and communication difficulties has gone up by 46% and the number of pupils displaying social, emotional and behavioural difficulties has increased by over a third.
Officers said the increase has contributed to a major rise in suspensions over the last four years.
In primary schools they have more than doubled while in secondary schools they have gone up by a fifth and in special schools they have increased by two thirds.
In a report for councillors, head of transformation Andrew Thomas said: “By providing specialist teaching facilities with appropriately trained and experienced staff it is expected that the educational opportunities for
such pupils will improve.
“Additionally such an establishment should be able to provide greater training and support for mainstream staff across the local authority.”
The schools will provide specialist teaching facilities suitable for delivering the Key Stage 2, 3 and 4 curriculum as well as catering for an alternative curriculum depending on individual pupil needs.
The council is looking to include the new school in its Band B submissions after Welsh Government increased its funding for projects.
The government is now providing a grant at a 75% intervention rate for special schools and has increased its grants for 21st Century School Band B projects from 50% to 65%.
Neath Port Talbot currently has two special schools – Ysgol Maes Y Coed which provides education for 90 pupils aged 2 to 19 years with profound and multiple learning difficulties, and Ysgol Hendrefelin which provides education for 180 pupils aged 3-16 with a wide variety of additional learning needs across three sites.
Officers said the new school would help alleviate pressures on Ysgol Hendrefelin as it is anticipated that the social, emotional and behavioural difficulties provision currently provided at the Theodore Road and Velindre sites would be included in the new build.
