A SPECIAL school which was set up more a decade ago by a group of parents of children with cerebral palsy is hoping to secure state funding as part of a national drive aimed at getting communities more involved in education.
The coalition Government’s free school policy aims to allow groups of parents and teachers to set up their own schools whenever they are unhappy with choice on offer in their local authority.
The first wave of these schools will open in September this year, including at least one new school in Yorkshire.
However, for one group of parents in Sheffield running their own school has been a way of life for the past 14 years.
Now the Paces School in Sheffield, which educates children with cerebral palsy, is bidding to join the free school movement.
The special school, which has 27 children, currently gets its funding from local councils based on each pupils’ statement of special educational needs.
In some cases the authority may appeal against the child being awarded a place at Paces meaning such cases will be decided by a tribunal.
Paces hopes that by becoming a free school, with funding direct from the Government, it will have a more secure source of income and be able expand to take on up to 64 young people.
Chief executive Norman Perrin, one of the parent founders of the Paces charity and school, said: “We were a free school before free schools had even been thought of.
“We were a group of parents who looked to set up a school because nothing like it existed here.”
The school provides a conductive education based on a system which was developed in Hungary to help pupils with cerebral palsy overcome difficulties in their movement or learning difficulties caused by their condition.
A group of parents from Sheffield travelled to the Pëto Academy in Budapest about 20 years ago to see it first hand, and now help to run a school offering the same education and support to children with cerebral palsy across much of Yorkshire. Paces School attracts pupils from across South Yorkshire, North-East Derbyshire, and from even further-afield such as Grimsby, Hull and Rochdale.
However, the founders hope that by becoming a free school they can expand its numbers and boost the profile.
Mr Perrin told the Yorkshire Post that Paces would also “jump at the chance” of being able to play a role in training teachers how to educate children with cerebral palsy. At present, the school’s headteacher and all but one of their teachers are from Hungary.
He said: “At present our funding depends on each pupil’s statement and this can be quite an adversarial system. Local councils decide on each pupil’s special educational needs and are responsible for deciding on a suitable education for the child and for meeting the costs.
“It is usually a very difficult process for a parent to go through in getting their child fully funded to attend the Paces School and even more gruelling when it results in a tribunal. Fortunately all tribunals have found in favour of Paces during the last four years.
“By becoming a free school we would become a regular school and our funding would follow the child.”
Mr Perrin said that the Government’s review of special educational needs should ensure that assessment of children is done independently. He warned that asking councils to assess pupils needs, run special schools and meet the costs of each child’s education created a conflict of interest. He said that the most common reason for local authorities not wanting to send pupils to a special school outside of their control was an objection to the cost.
There are about 750 youngsters in South Yorkshire alone with cerebral palsy, but Paces School fears that most of their families will never have heard of the school or the adult support services they provide.
On Monday next week, Paces is holding an open day from 9.30am to 8.30pm. The school is based in Pack Horse Lane, in High Green.
Paces hope to get support from local councils to their plan to become a free school as there is no other similar specialist provision for young people with cerebral palsy in the region.
Anyone planning to open a free school for the 2012/13 academic year has to submit bids to the Department for Education by next month under a tougher new application process.
Under the new system, applicants will be asked to produce detailed reports demonstrating parental demand, the type of education their school will provide along with evidence of their own “capacity and capability”. Shortlisted applicants will then be interviewed by panels of experts.
source: yorkshirepost.co.uk
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