If you could design a good SN school from scratch, what resources would you ensure were in place?

[TheMaleyDale]

I'm not after 3 sensory rooms and a stable. More the lighting, the educational support, the communication with parents, the design of the classrooms, the length of the lessons, the opportunities for social interaction etc etc.

that what they said they could cater for was actually true, so it would be a lot of money and well trained staff to be able to deal with the kids that were there.

It would be co-located with a mainstream school.

What about communication with parents? Could each child have a secure web portal where issues could be discussed, work and homework shared, appointments made, and where the children themselves could also access etc.?

What about one or two 'escape' rooms to the side of the main classroom? What about playgrounds with small areas and large areas etc.?

Teachers who've actually worked with SN children before and can do proper IEP's.

A huge soft play area, a couple of hydro pools, trampoline room for rebound therapy, and a room covered in paper that could be drawn/coloured painted by all.

total communication environment - so PECS, makaton, symbols & spoken language - so many schools are set on one form of communication.
In house support - physio,SALT, orthotics & OT all on site & part of the daily life of the school.

An awareness that not all sn children have behaviour issues or asd.sorry not meaning to be rude more when been looking at schools and I get the wide eye. Look when I say he does not have and the are you sure.lol that's the only thing that me and lea and proffesionals agree on

Okay, but say you only have money for concrete things, rather than staff training?

Right equipment be that hoists.seating,it
,playroom etc.

Also know what kinda of sn your aiming at as needs so varied .what a child with asd needs might be totaly differnt to child with pd or mod

My sons new build school has been up a year now. Multi million state of the art!!! Rebound room where the trampoline is built into the floor so all one level. Large soft play, hydro with lights and sound optional. Art room, music room, libraries, computers, plasma tv in each room, hooked to a laptop, also acts as smart board. In house physio, salt, ot,vision and hearing impairment teams. I could go on and on, fabulous building, all needs catered for. Shame about the staff and communication!!!

devient Does the school meet the children's 'educational' needs or just the additional needs that a disability can bring iyswim?

Press the button for the electric door to open - ie cause and effect, operated by child, NOT automatic.

Hydro pool woth 2 hoists so 2 can use it at once.

interactive wall so you can "computer-use" on walls.

I'll think of more....

sound-field systems in all rooms, good for hearing impaired but the improved sound quality benefits the behaviour of all the kids.

Hi all sorry to say but it has everything...hoists, interactivity, sound systems etc and meets educational needs, however it is an sld/pmld school which is also acredited by NAS with intake for the more severe. It has only been standing a year gone January and a lot of though and consultation was put in place. Everything you need with bells and whistles.If there's anything else you want to know just ask!!

Also forgot to mention the zebra crossings, traffic lights etc for working on road safety and for help with independant travel...the bus stop (where staff just need to phone local buses to come and pick up) and the train station with stationary train!!!

TreeHouse opened its new building about a year ago, have a look on www.treehouse.org.uk It doesn't have a hydro pool but does have all sorts of things and seems to be a great building. DS left there 2 years ago when it was portacabins but I'm still friends with lots of mums and dads there and they are all very happy with the building and what goes on inside (more or less). Everything had to be fundraised for so there were limitations.
Its funny, when we looked for schools for DS none of the local special schools took kids with ASD!! It was considered quite unusual in those days. Since then there has been LOTS more provision built and provided and even the local Special school that didn't take ASD has several ASD only classrooms. Of course, they had kids with ASD all along, it just wasn't recognised or admitted iyswim.

lol starlight. The soft play along with all other fun areas are timetabled so they only have a few skives a week!!!