SEND school near Yeovil gets approval for 2023

Somerset County Council says the new school will help ease a shortage of places

A new free school for more than 100 pupils with special educational needs will be opened by 2023.

Somerset County Council said the Department for Education (DfE) has approved the building of the school near Yeovil.

When open, it will cater for children between the ages of five and 16.

The council said the building work should be completed by October 2022 and the first pupils welcomed in January 2023.

The new school, which will be built close to the A303 between the villages of Ash and Tintinhull, will be constructed and paid for by the DfE

It will be managed by the Wave Multi-Academy Trust, which currently runs more than a dozen specialist schools in Devon and Cornwall.

The new school will be built on farmland close to the A303

Already named the Martock-Ash Academy, the new school will accept up to 120 pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with speech, language and communication difficulties.

A trust spokesman said: "Our academy will be purpose-designed and built with the needs of our pupils at the centre of the design. 

"Our building will support the age range of pupils with appropriate separation and areas of the school to encourage pupil access to play places where they can self-regulate."

The site will be leased to the trust from the county council on a 125-year lease.

Somerset County Council's property performance and governance officer Victoria Goscomb said: "The proposed new school would provide local places for children with a range of complex additional needs."

She added it would help address a shortage of SEND places in the local area.