Additional special educational needs places to be created at Surrey infant school
Up to 21 additional special educational needs (SEN) places will be created at an infant school in Surrey, according to plans approved by the county council.
The local authority is planning to create a new SEN unit at Thames Ditton Infant School.
It would create enough space for 21 pupils with Communication and Interaction needs and co-occurring needs who require a specialist placement in a mainstream school.
Each child in the class will have an EHCP which outlines their need for specialist support.
But the demand for SEN support will still “outweigh” the level of provision in local schools in Elmbridge, according to the report.
Data projections show a gradual decrease in the number of pupils with Educational Health and Care Plans in Surrey from 2023/24 to 2032/33.
In the Elmbridge area, there are currently only 24 SEN places available out of a total of 82 needed for the 2024/25 school year.
The county council is hoping to more than double its existing provision to 54 SEN places by 2032/33- but this still does not meet the projected need of 77 pupils.
The agreed plans will formalise the SEN provision from the 12-pupil ‘nurture class’ created in September 2024 for children with a diagnosis of autism and with social communication needs.
It will be transformed into an official SEN unit in September 2025 and will have 21 spaces from reception to Year 2 by the start of the following academic year.
Thames Ditton Infant School is a foundation school which teaches pupils aged 4-7 years.
The school is reducing its admission number from 90 to 60 students in September 2025 and so the spare class created will be used for the SEN unit, the report noted.
It said: “Surrey’s existing specialist provision, which includes specialist school places in SEN Units in mainstream schools and in Specialist Schools academies, has around 4,000 places and 97 per cent occupancy.”
Councillor Claire Curran (Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning) said the new SEND unit will allow “more children to go to school closer to home rather than attend specialist provision at distance, and they will therefore stay connected to their communities”.
She also added the new unit provides benefits to the county council.
State-maintained specialist school places could save approximately £30k per pupil place per year, according to the report.