JCoSS unveils pioneering special needs project

Plans have been unveiled for the first centre within a mainstream British school dedicated to educating children on the autistic spectrum.
The state-of-the-art facility will be an integral part of the £50-million Jewish Community Secondary School, due to be opened in East Barnet in 2010. The special centre accounts for £11 million of the budget of JCoSS, the most expensive state school ever built.

Norwood will run the special resource provision, as it is officially known, that will cater for up to 55 children. The main staff room will be situated in the facility and integration will be encouraged at every level.

“All the children who come to the centre will have a statement of special educational needs and will be on the autistic spectrum,” Norwood chief executive Norma Brier said this week. “We have already had dozens of inquiries from parents. There is a very important benefit for families in all their children [special needs and mainstream]going to the same school.”

There will be rooms for hydrotherapy, music and art therapy, physiotherapy and occupational therapy. Another classroom will be set out as a flat, to help prepare the teenagers to lead independent lives after leaving school.