With the backing of North Somerset Council’s Children’s Services for the delivery of the new SEND school, the Department for Education (DfE) have submitted plans for Lime Hills Academy’s permanent site in Langford.
If planning permission is granted Lime Hills Academy, which opened in temporary accommodation in September last year, will have places for up to 65 children and young people in year 1 to 11 (age 5-16), with primary SEMH needs (Social, Emotional Mental Health needs).
Currently there is no special school provision for pupils with a primary diagnosis of SEMH needs within North Somerset and 19% of local children with an EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) have to travel outside of the area to school.
Lime Hills Academy is part of the Cabot Learning Federation and aims to ‘level up’ educational outcomes and keep children engaged in learning through specialist facilities and learning programmes. The site enables opportunities for vocational studies and outdoor sports with a closer connection to nature in a calm and sustainable environment.
The following key sustainability and biodiversity supporting aspects have been incorporated into the design:
The architects have created a place of sanctuary for those with acute needs whilst also responding to comments made during consultation from neighbouring properties to provide a sympathetic building orientation and more sustainable landscape design. Lime Hills Academy will support the local economy and bring new jobs to the area. The site benefits from being adjacent to both Langford and Churchill with facilities designed for community use outside school hours.
Parking and drop-off for the school will be contained within the site and an off-site method of construction will help minimise disruption to neighbours. All vehicular traffic will arrive and depart via Pudding Pie Lane only. The teaching day will also be split between primary and secondary pupils so that trips are spread throughout the day to reduce impact on the local network.
Lis Jolley, Lime Hills Academy Principal said, “In its new purpose-built home, Lime Hills Academy will create an environment, a workforce and a curriculum experience which enables children and young people with social, emotional and mental health difficulties to develop the skills, resilience and self awareness to be successful at first at school and then in later life. “The setting will have a range of carefully designed spaces which will enable group interaction, safe spaces for retreat, those which facilitate academic learning and those which are more therapeutic in nature.
“A key strength of Lime Hills Academy is that it sits within the Cabot Learning Federation (CLF), a mature multi-academy trust achieving above average outcomes for children with below average starting points. With 22 academies and a mission to “consistently deliver excellent educational experiences for pupils aged 3-19, improving their life chances and serving the communities of which we are a member. “As a result of the learning undertaken at Lime Hills, upon graduation children we be able to benefit from and contribute to their immediate community because their education has enabled them to better understand themselves and their connection to the world around them.”
Cllr Catherine Gibbons, Executive Member for Children, Young People, Lifelong learning and Skills at North Somerset Council said, “Lime Hills Academy is currently supporting 22 pupils from their temporary accommodation in Nailsea. We are looking forward to the DfE delivering their permanent site as part of our joint commitment to providing local schools and supporting those with social, emotional and mental health needs. This is part of our strategy to ensure that all children should have the opportunity to attend a good school within North Somerset where they can learn, grow and develop.
“Across North Somerset we are increasing the number of special school places from 368 prior to September 2022 to 498 places by September 2024. We are also looking to create 50 additional places in new Resource Bases and 80 places in Nurture Groups across the district from September 2023 to further meet the needs of our children and young people. Lime Hills Academy will provide around 65 of these additional specialist school place with closer access to high quality specialist education for these pupils and reduced home to school journey times for many.”
For more information about the proposals you can visit n-somersetsendschoolplans.co.uk or visit the Council planning portal here and look for planning application no 22/P/2920/FUL.
