HEADTEACHER Judith McGuinness is appealing for support to enable her school to provide on-site training.

Judith leads Rosebank School in Barnton, a specialist primary school providing education for children with autism, Asperger’s Syndrome and social and communication difficulties which has this year been the Local Charity Partner of Sainsbury’s Northwich.

As part of its community initiatives programme Sainsbury’s was keen to find a refurbishment project to work on alongside the revamp of its store and petrol station.

A bungalow on the school site which had been rented out as office facilities was in need of renovation so part of it could be used to provide training facilities, library resources and a meeting room for parents.

Base Build Services, the contractor for the Sainsbury’s store modernisation, and William Southern, who refurbished the petrol station, carried out the refurbishment.

The kitchen area and toilet facilities were refurbished and redecoration was carried out in a large meeting room, including provision of new flooring and lighting and the creation of a patio area.

“We’re delighted with the help and support from Sainsbury’s this year,” said Mrs McGuinness.

“The refurbishment had been on our wish list for a long time, and to see it become real has been a dream come true.”

Thanks also go to ID Glass, Northwich, which donated a new kitchen window and glasswork with the school logo for the front door, and gave their time to fit these and other windows free of charge.

Further redecoration work is being carried out to provide a room with a library for parents which will be stocked with books and resources provided with support from the National Autistic Society.

Mrs McGuinness said: “We need a place for parents to go to chat and relax together, to share tips and advice.

“Most of our children are transported to and from school from all over Cheshire in taxis, so parents don’t have the opportunity to meet at the school gates.

“It is important for us to provide a place where they can get together to provide mutual support.”

Plans are in place to use the large refurbished room as a training facility, but this is hampered by lack of furniture.

“We provide training for parents, other schools and professionals, but have to hire rooms for these courses,” said Mrs McGuinness.

“The courses help generate income for the school.

“It would be fantastic to be able to provide this training using our own facilities, but the budget won’t stretch to provide the additional furniture.

“We really need foldable tables and stackable chairs to enable the room to be multi-functional for meetings or training, and if any local organisation would like to support us by fundraising or donating we’d love to hear from them.”