PLANS to transform the vacant Dean Row Centre at Wilmslow into a satellite special school have moved a step closer with the submission of a planning application.

The council-owned building, which was used until 2012 to support adults with learning disabilities, will become a satellite school for the highly rated Springfield Special School in Crewe if planning permission is granted.

The application includes a proposal to remodel and refurbish the existing building, provide a new extension to house an escape stair, alter the existing car park to access control barriers and gates, provide new fencing, new sprinkler tank and associated pump housing and new external storage shed.

Access to the site will be off Ringstead Drive.

A design and access statement submitted with the planning application states: “It is proposed that the existing, unoccupied Cheshire East Council asset, the Dean Row Centre, be adapted for re-use as a special educational needs and disabilities school (SEND), with a focus on catering for people with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD).

“The satellite school will be required to accommodate a minimum of 70 students with ASD, with a top capacity of 80 students.”

The report states the Dean Row Centre Satellite School will cater primarily for children and young people between the ages of four and 19 with ASD.

“At the more demanding spectrum of requirements, some pupils may have severe and complex needs, profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), others have severe nonverbal autism (ASD),” says the report.

“It is expected the student body will be majority ambulant, although it is likely that some students may have additional physical, sensory or medical requirements. These requirements are likely to vary from year to year.

“To ensure the school will be able to adapt to the fluctuating needs of the student body, provision for less ambulant students will need to incorporated into the design from the outset.”

The school will have 37 full-time equivalent staff.

Student classes will be organised by ability rather than age.

Cheshire East’s children and families committee agreed last July that Springfield School could expand on to the satellite site at Wilmslow.

The Crewe special school has been rated ‘outstanding’ in its last four Ofsted inspections.

Knutsford Guardian:

Cllr Kathryn Flavell

Chair Kathryn Flavell had said at that July 2021 meeting: “Many children travel  quite a long way to attend that school from the north of the borough and we do have children who have to go out of Cheshire East to attend a SEND place so this expansion, which provides an extra 80 places, is proposed to be placed in Dean Row in a building that we already own. “

The application, number 22/2349M, can be viewed on the planning portal on the Cheshire East website.

The last date for submitting comments is July 28.