Plans to bring a former high school in Northallerton back into use to support children and young people with specialist educational needs are set to be reconsidered by councillors next week.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s executive will review proposals on Tuesday, February 17, to create a 120-place special school at the former Grammar School site on Grammar School Lane. If approved, the scheme would see the long-empty building brought back into use to help meet growing demand for specialist provision closer to where families live.
The site has been unused since 2021, when pupils from the former grammar school moved to the Allertonshire School site on Brompton Road. Plans to redevelop the building were first submitted to the Government in 2022, when the area was identified as having one of the council’s most urgent needs for additional special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for education, learning and skills, Cllr Annabel Wilkinson, said supporting children with additional needs remained a top priority.
She said: “Investing in our children and young people and ensuring they are nurtured and educated for the best start in life and new opportunities is a priority for us. While many pupils with additional needs can be supported in mainstream schools close to home, we recognise that some children and young people require specialist provision due to more complex needs – and this is where there is a significant shortfall.”
The executive will also consider the implications of a £5.6 million grant offered by the Department for Education to support alternative, personalised SEND provision in mainstream settings. Council officers have warned that accepting the funding would prevent the development of the proposed special school in Northallerton, and are therefore recommending that plans to renovate the Grammar School Lane building continue.
The proposal forms part of a wider programme to expand SEND provision across the county. This includes a new secondary school for autistic students in Harrogate and a planned specialist school in Osgodby, near Selby, for 100 children aged three to 19 with complex needs.
Demand for SEND support in North Yorkshire has risen sharply in recent years, with the number of pupils supported by Education, Health and Care Plans increasing by more than 110 per cent since 2016, to more than 6,400 children and young people. Over the same period, special school places have increased from 820 in 2017 to a planned 1,466 by September this year.
The proposals come as the Government prepares major reforms to the SEND system, with a new Schools White Paper expected later this year.
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