A CITY special school has unveiled plans to build a new permanent classroom.
The extension at Regency High School would replace one of the temporary classrooms it is currently using.
The school was told last year to take on more pupils by Worcestershire Children’s First, which runs children’s services in the county, to help meet a shortage of special educational needs places across Worcestershire.
As a quick fix, the secondary school in Carnforth Drive was given permission to build four temporary buildings on its playground.
This application is the first stage in creating more permanent replacements for those classrooms.
The plan would see a ‘resources room’ extended to create a 55 sq m classroom, plus the creation of a new resources room.
“Initial concept designs have been undertaken for permanent buildings and the location of the temporary building was chosen to ensure the construction of any new buildings could be undertaken unhindered and before removing the temporary units,” say planning documents submitted to Worcester City Council.
“The school caters for a broad selection of pupil disabilities. The school consists of buildings from the 1960s with additional extensions and alterations carried out over its lifetime.
READ MORE: Regency High School to build temporary classrooms to meet demand
“The most recent extensions were constructed in 2007 to provide an additional eight classrooms along with considerable remodelling of the premises to provide a modern standard of special educational needs and an additional four classrooms and car park in 2018.”
Governors at Fort Royal Community Primary School warned earlier this year that a lack of special education needs and disability places could have “dire consequences” for vulnerable children.
They called for urgent action from Worcestershire County Council.
Councillor Tracey Onslow, the council’s cabinet member for education at the time, said it was continuing “to work with all schools around inclusion and with all specialist settings, in particular special schools, to review options available to increase pupil numbers and to ensure that children were accessing the most suitable provision for their needs.
"Options include re-configuration of spaces, expansions, or conversion of temporary accommodation to permanent builds," she said.
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