Unity Schools Partnership is working alongside Suffolk County Council to develop additional specialist education places in one of our schools – Woodhall Primary School in Sudbury.

Across Suffolk there is a shortfall of specialist places available. This can mean that some pupils have to be educated away from their local communities.

As part of a local authority capital programme, additional new specialist places will be available for children with special educational needs across Suffolk from September 2021. This is on top of existing specialist provision.

Suffolk County Council has undertaken a commissioning process where schools, who were interested in establishing new provision, provided information on how specialist places would be run and supported by the school.

Schools who were successful in this process, like ours, are currently working with the council to ensure the appropriate infrastructure and support is in place to enable these new units to be open in September 2021.

Places will be offered as part of a dedicated class, with specially trained staff and will give more children the opportunity to be educated in their community, closer to home.

The funding for capital works to our school is being provided by Suffolk County Council.

Woodhall Primary School in Sudbury will be offering 18 places for children in Key Stage 2 (age 7-11) to support children with communication and interaction needs.

These places will be in addition to the school’s current PAN (Planned Admission Number). This means that there will not be a reduction in the number of places available in the usual admissions round. Allocation of specialist places will follow a separate admissions process and will be for pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan.

We are making this development in order to provide more pupils with their education at a school in their area.

We are running a consultation into these plans (see below). Please return responses to Woodhall Primary School or to Specialist Provision Consultation, Unity Schools Partnership, Park Road, Haverhill CB9 7YD or to specialistprovision@unitysp.co.uk by Thursday 11th March 2021.