Rayleigh and Wickford MP, Mark Francois, who launched a campaign in the House of Commons last July to build a new SEN school in South Essex, has warmly welcomed the news that Essex County Council (ECC) are now planning to build the school larger than originally intended, following a successful public consultation exercise.
Back in February, Mark and County Councillor Tony Ball, Cabinet Member for Education Excellence, Lifelong Learning and Employability, announced that the school would be built on a designated site which is part of the Vistry housing development at Rawreth lane, on the edge of Rayleigh. At the time, it was intended that the school would cater for “100 plus pupils.”
Under the Education Acts, ECC were mandated to conduct a public consultation, to ask the local community whether they agreed with the proposals. There was an overwhelmingly positive response, with 95% out of the 823 respondents replying, backing the plans. However, a number of respondents expressed a desire that, given the large number of children on waiting lists for SEN places, the school should be a bit bigger. Mark has been working very closely with ECC to this aim, ever since.
A report, published on Monday, due to go to ECC Cabinet next week, now recommends that the school, which will be built on a two-and-a-half-acre site, should be expanded to cater for 150 pupils rather than the intended “100 plus”, originally intended. Moreover, the County’s proposals now also envisage plans for Chetwood Primary School in South Woodham Ferrers (which closed several years ago, but is still owned by the Council), being completely refurbished, in order to act as an annex for the school, containing a Sixth Form and also a hydro pool facility.
The sixth form would cater for around 40 pupils, taking the overall number of pupils attending the school to 190. Assuming the County Council formally approves these proposals, they will then have to run a competition for a Multi Academy Trust to build and run the school and it is hoped, subject to planning permission, the school at Rawreth could open by the 2025/26 academic year (with the annex at Chetwood to open shortly thereafter.)
Commenting on this very welcome news, Mark said:
“Since receiving the results of the consultation, I have been working very hard behind the scenes with Essex County Council, to try and come up with a scheme for a larger school. I am therefore absolutely delighted that ECC are now proposing a school for 150 pupils at the Rawreth site, plus repurposing the old Chetwood school to provide a sixth form annex, a few miles up the road, in South Woodham Ferrers. I very much hope that the ECC will endorse this plan and that, subject to planning, with luck we will be on site by Christmas and the school can open around a year or so thereafter. This is great news for Special Needs children and their families- and I hope we will continue to enjoy the very strong levels of public support that was demonstrated in the consultation.”
