A Brief History
St. Luke’s Primary School is a day special school in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire. Currently, there are just over one hundred children on roll aged from 3-11 years with moderate, severe and profound learning difficulties. The majority of children have severe learning difficulties (SLD) but about 15 per cent of them have moderate learning difficulties (MLD). 25 per cent have profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD).
The school was opened in September 2002 following reorganisation by the North Lincolnshire LEA of its two special schools. Both of the former special schools were successful schools but had extreme accommodation difficulties. Reorganisation was a long process starting in early 1997. There were five years of considerable uncertainty for staff and parents, although the children themselves were remarkably resilient throughout. The process was helped by the excellent cooperation and goodwill shown by all parties but was hindered by frustrating setbacks and vicissitudes. However, the two new schools, St. Hugh’s Secondary School and St. Luke’s Primary School, are now settled into very good new buildings. Pleasingly, and reassuringly, both have had good reports following Ofsted inspections in 2004/05 and 2007.
St. Luke’s Primary School is a day special school in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire. Currently, there are just over one hundred children on roll aged from 3-11 years with moderate, severe and profound learning difficulties. The majority of children have severe learning difficulties (SLD) but about 15 per cent of them have moderate learning difficulties (MLD). 25 per cent have profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD).
The school was opened in September 2002 following reorganisation by the North Lincolnshire LEA of its two special schools. Both of the former special schools were successful schools but had extreme accommodation difficulties. Reorganisation was a long process starting in early 1997. There were five years of considerable uncertainty for staff and parents, although the children themselves were remarkably resilient throughout. The process was helped by the excellent cooperation and goodwill shown by all parties but was hindered by frustrating setbacks and vicissitudes. However, the two new schools, St. Hugh’s Secondary School and St. Luke’s Primary School, are now settled into very good new buildings. Pleasingly, and reassuringly, both have had good reports following Ofsted inspections in 2004/05 and 2007.
The Buildings
From the outset all of us – staff, governors, parents and pupils - were involved in some way in the design of the new buildings. As regards all aspects of the provision for the pupils, we had a significant influence upon the design of the whole building as well as the specialist provision through our close work with the architects. We may not have got everything we wanted due to prohibitive costs but we certainly got everything that we felt was essential.
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The building does provide all of the facilities required to deliver a high quality education. One key ‘selling point’ for the new school from the outset was the pool for warm water activities which are essential to the physical development programmes of for pupils with physical disabilities. Another is that the building is all on one level and does not present access problems for wheelchair users.
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The corridors have a good width and the walls have been protected with brightly coloured ‘bumpers’ so that it does not matter when children do not steer properly their mobility aids or wheelchairs. Even so, we have had to tape plumbers’ lagging to some mobility aids to reduce damage to the building. Steering only comes with practice!
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The school has separate PE and dining halls so that there is full-time access to a hall for, say, a music and movement activity. Specialist fitness trails and adventure playground equipment have been installed in the school grounds. There are areas for football and other team games. At the children’s request, raod markings have been put down for the scooters and trikes used by them at break times.
Each classroom has a ceiling mounted tracking rail and hoist for the safe moving and handling of children with physical disabilities so that they can have regular changes of position for their physical well-being and so that they can access a range of activities. All rooms have adjustable height sinks, and some have adjustable tables, to accommodate children who are in standing frames or wheelchairs. There are specially equipped hygiene areas nearby and a lot of thought has gone into the planning of the layout of these. The sensory garden in the school’s inner courtyard has raised beds created using log rolls and adjustable height horticultural benches for gardening activities.
We are very pleased with our specialist teaching areas, the cookery room, the art room with its pottery facilities, the ball pool and the multi-sensory studio with its good range of visual and auditory resources that can be operated by the children using a range of specialist switches.
Each classroom has a ceiling mounted tracking rail and hoist for the safe moving and handling of children with physical disabilities so that they can have regular changes of position for their physical well-being and so that they can access a range of activities. All rooms have adjustable height sinks, and some have adjustable tables, to accommodate children who are in standing frames or wheelchairs. There are specially equipped hygiene areas nearby and a lot of thought has gone into the planning of the layout of these. The sensory garden in the school’s inner courtyard has raised beds created using log rolls and adjustable height horticultural benches for gardening activities.
We are very pleased with our specialist teaching areas, the cookery room, the art room with its pottery facilities, the ball pool and the multi-sensory studio with its good range of visual and auditory resources that can be operated by the children using a range of specialist switches.
