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From the ashes of disaster...


Rebuilding after a devastating fire gave The Meadows Special School the opportunity to create a fully inclusive campus connected to the neighbouring high school. The result has been new facilities and opportunities for pupils and staff from both schools, as Chris Williams explains.


The Meadows Special School in Leek is a generic secondary special school serving the Staffordshire Moorlands. The original school was destroyed by fire caused by an electrical fault in October 2004. At the time the school was an all- age special school for children with moderate learning difficulties.


By coincidence, Staffordshire County Council was going through a process of reorganising all of its special schools at that time, and The Meadows was due to become a generic secondary special school. While housed in temporary accommodation in an old infant school, the decision was made by the council to build a brand new school on a co-located site with Leek High School. The site already housed the generic primary special school for the Staffordshire Moorlands.


The decision was based on the concept of a fully inclusive campus able to serve the needs of pupils with special needs throughout the district. This decision, taken in February 2006, was the start of three years of planning and building work, with staff and pupils moving into the new school building in March 2009. The total cost of the project was approximately £6m, including adaptations to Leek High School to make the site fully accessible.


From the start, pupils from The Meadows and Leek High School, as well as other local schools, came together as part of the design process. Anybody walking around the new school building can see colour schemes, carpet designs, artwork and glazing designs created by the pupils, giving all students who use the site ‘ownership’ of the new building.


The Meadows is physically joined to Leek High School, with many of the high school’s excellent facilities being shared, including dining facilities and a state-of-the-art sports centre. The concept of the design was to remove physical barriers to enable pupils from both schools to engage in activities together, while maintaining security to ensure the highest levels of safeguarding for all.


In addition, a number of curriculum facilities in the high school were adapted to ensure that co-location meant not just sharing facilities, but also allowing opportunities for pupils from the two schools to work together. Students now share activities as varied as outdoor pursuits, food technology and sports events. In addition, pupils from both schools have, where appropriate, attended lessons in either school in numeracy and literacy.


A number of pupils from the high school have also been involved in work experience at The Meadows, in the process learning how to communicate with pupils with a wide variety of needs that may be different from their own. At the end of the summer term, leavers from both schools attended a joint leaving prom including ball gowns, DJs and limousines!


There have also been new opportunities for professional development for both sets of staff. Staff from the high school have been able to access invaluable advice, guidance and training from staff at The Meadows to help them ensure that their pupils with special needs have them appropriately met. Staff from The Meadows have


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