Extra school places and the refurbishment of existing accommodation for children with special needs in the Andover area are a step closer as Hampshire County Council’s plans to expand Icknield School progress to the next stage of consultation.
Feedback from an initial public consultation with stakeholders, which took place in November and December, was considered by Councillor Roz Chadd, the County Council’s Executive Member for Education and Skills, at the decision day meeting held on 13 January 2021 where she approved a recommendation to move forward with the publication of statutory public notices. This means that a formal consultation period of four weeks will begin on 15 January 2021. Councillor Chadd commented:
I am very happy to support the recommendation that we proceed to Public Notices for the expansion of Icknield School, which will provide a significantly improved learning environment and 10 more specialist school places for children and young people with Special Education Needs (SEND).
The County Council is committed to further developing successful provision or creating new provision where possible to meet demand for places.
The initial public consultation in late 2020 invited feedback from pupils, their parents, school staff and governors, trade unions and other community stakeholders and was also published on Hampshire County Council’s consultation website: https://www.hants.gov.uk/aboutthecouncil/haveyoursay/consultations.
The outcome of the statutory public notice period will be reported at a future decision day in February 2021.
Icknield is currently a 78-place special school for children and young people aged 3-19 with severe learning difficulties.
The proposed works will provide additional internal teaching accommodation to enable more children to attend the school and improve the overall internal and external learning environment for all pupils, giving a final overall capacity of 88 places.
The new provision is planned to open in September 2022.