THE hard work going into a school for children with special needs has been praised by Northwich's MP.

Mike Amesbury was given a tour of The Russett School in Weaverham recently by headteacher Andrew Howard, where he had the chance to observe lessons taking place as well as hear about some of the school's achievements.

Mike, MP for the Weaver Vale constituency, paid tribute to the school's pupils, staff and parents following the visit.

He said: "I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and it was great to see lessons actually taking place.

“It’s essential that young people with SEN [special education needs] in my constituency get the help and support they need and this is something I’ll continue to press for both locally and in Parliament.”

The Russett School describes itself as a place for children with multi sensory impairment to learn and develop.

It works with children aged two to 19, and has recently been awarded a Gold award for the Religious Education Quality mark – the only specialist learning difficulty school in the country to have achieved the ranking.

Its latest inspection from Ofsted – the government's education watchdog – in 2014 yielded a rating of 'outstanding', which is the highest rating available to schools.

Mike's visit allowed the school to showcase the crucial work going on at its Weaverham base.

Mr Howard said: “It was a pleasure to welcome Mike to The Russett and I am so glad he took the time to visit.

“As an SEN school, our students and parents face a struggle on a daily basis and to have Mike seeing the differences we make to their lives is really good.

“As an outstanding school, with a passion to be a centre of excellence sharing our expertise, it is great to have the support of our local MP and I hope we also helped Mike see the invaluable impact SEN schools have to the lives of so many young people.”

See more about the school at russettschool.co.uk