A brand new nursery school for children with special educational needs looks set to be created in Crowborough.
Wealden District Council’s Cabinet has agreed funding of up to £1 million to create the new nursery school at the Acre Wood School in Church Road.
The money is coming from the community interest levy (CIL) that developers pay when they build new housing to support the infrastructure that serves the community.
Cllr Rachel Millward, leader of the council said: “We know this will be quite a transformative place for early years education, for families who have an awful lot to cope with, with complex special educational needs.
“So we’re really delighted to recommend this and that it will be an important part of this new school provision in Crowborough.”
The new nursery, if agreed by WDC’s full council, will be part Acre Wood Academy, previously Grove Park School, which is currently undergoing a massive £17 million redevelopment.
The wider project, funded by East Sussex County Council, will bring both the primary and secondary school buildings on to the same site.
It involves building a brand new secondary building for the school in Church Road which caters for children with special educational needs The school’s secondary and sixth form classes currently take place at Beacon Academy. While secondary provision will move to Church Road, the current arrangement would continue for sixth formers.
The new purpose-built school is planned for completion in September 2027 and will benefit not only local children but also the rapidly increasing number of children with special needs across the county.
The investment comes following a big leap in the number of young people in the county with special educational needs. The numbers of school aged children and young people aged 4-19 in East Sussex with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) has been rising steeply in recent years.
As a result of the rise in numbers of pupils with an EHCP, particularly those with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), pupil numbers at Grove Park School (now Acre Wood Academy), the only special school in the north of the county, had also increased significantly – up 33 per cent in the last 10 years.