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New community special school for south east Oxfordshire
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This consultation is part of the process to open a new community special school to serve south east Oxfordshire. The opening date is dependent on the speed of delivery of the Valley Park housing development in Didcot where it will be located, but the current hope is that it will open in 2028.
The county council is planning two new special schools in the Didcot area to serve south east Oxfordshire:
One special school is due to be built within the Valley Park development, and will specialise in educating children with Profound & Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) and other associated needs. A site has been secured for this school through a Section 106 legal agreement with the developer. This is the schoolcovered by this consultation.
Another special school will specialise in educating children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) needs. The details of this school were approved by the county council Cabinet member responsible for Education in July 2024, following a public consultation.
To inform further work on planning the new special school, the county council is consulting on an education specification. This specification sets out what type of school we are seeking, and will be used to attract and assess academy trusts interested in running the school. This specification does not include details of the site and building, as that will be consulted on through the planning permission process.
Further information on the background to this consultation is available in the Documents section.
Have your say
The county council invites comments on the draft specification from all those interested in the delivery of special education. The comments received will be used to finalise the specification, which will then be approved by the county council Cabinet, before being published and used as the basis for selecting an academy sponsor.
Please fill in our online survey by clicking the ‘COMPLETE FORM’ button in the Survey section below.
You may also want to read the current Oxfordshire SEND Sufficiency Delivery Strategy which is available on the county council website.
This consultation is part of the process to open a new community special school to serve south east Oxfordshire. The opening date is dependent on the speed of delivery of the Valley Park housing development in Didcot where it will be located, but the current hope is that it will open in 2028.
The county council is planning two new special schools in the Didcot area to serve south east Oxfordshire:
One special school is due to be built within the Valley Park development, and will specialise in educating children with Profound & Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) and other associated needs. A site has been secured for this school through a Section 106 legal agreement with the developer. This is the schoolcovered by this consultation.
Another special school will specialise in educating children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) needs. The details of this school were approved by the county council Cabinet member responsible for Education in July 2024, following a public consultation.
To inform further work on planning the new special school, the county council is consulting on an education specification. This specification sets out what type of school we are seeking, and will be used to attract and assess academy trusts interested in running the school. This specification does not include details of the site and building, as that will be consulted on through the planning permission process.
Further information on the background to this consultation is available in the Documents section.
Have your say
The county council invites comments on the draft specification from all those interested in the delivery of special education. The comments received will be used to finalise the specification, which will then be approved by the county council Cabinet, before being published and used as the basis for selecting an academy sponsor.
Please fill in our online survey by clicking the ‘COMPLETE FORM’ button in the Survey section below.
The county council is consulting on an education specification for a proposed new community special school serving south east Oxfordshire, for children with Profound & Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD) and other associated needs. This specification sets out what type of school we are seeking, and will be used to attract and assess academy trusts interested in running the school. This specification does not include details of the site and building, as that will be consulted on through the planning permission process.
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Under the Data Protection Act 2018, we (Oxfordshire County Council) have a legal duty to protect any personal information we collect from you. View Oxfordshire County Council’s privacy notice online at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk - search for ‘privacy notice’.
Alternative formats
If you (or anyone you know) needs this consultation in an alternative format in order to have your say, ie Easy Read, large text, audio, Braille or a community language, please email consultations@oxfordshire.gov.uk or call the council’s customer services team on 01865 792422 and we will work with you to meet your needs.
Printed copies
You can request a paper copy of the consultation documents by emailing: consultations@oxfordshire.gov.uk or call the county council's Customer Services Team on 01865 792422.
