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City school's plea for 'life changing' facility

Hannah Griffithsin Coventry
News imageBBC A woman with blonde hair is smiling and wearing a black T-shirt which reads 'I Love My Job'. She is standing against wicker storage baskets in a classroom. Behind her is a picture of the Gruffalo and children's pictures on the wall.BBC
Michaela Burns said the current situation was challenging

A Coventry school has launched an appeal to provide a life-changing facility for some of the children it cares for.

Stoke Primary School has an area of the school dedicated to adaptive provision, known as the Aviary Room, which means it supports some of the children in the city with the highest educational needs.

But the classroom doesn't have its own disabled toilet, meaning staff have to walk children through the school to use facilities in a different part of the building.

A crowdfunding campaign has been launched to try to raise money to build a new facility.

Michaela Burns, room lead for Adaptive Provision, said a space inside The Aviary would help staff as well as the pupils.

She said: "A member of staff will always need to leave the room so then your ratios change. It's really challenging.

"We don't want to see children dysregulated just because they want to go to the toilet."

An area of The Aviary classroom has been earmarked for the new bathroom.

"We'd have to have the walls built, just an open space for them to go in, go to the toilet, a changing facility as well as we have children still in nappies," Burns added.

News imageFive staff members at Stoke Primary School sit on a sofa in the classroom of their alternative provision The Aviary. Behind them is a green classroom table and chairs and doors to an outdoor play area
Staff at Stoke Primary School's Aviary Room are crowdfunding for a new bathroom

The building work could cost up to £15,000 but initially a £5,000 crowdfunding target has been set.

That target was reached after a large anonymous donation came in for £3,460.

Now the school hopes to raise the rest and get local businesses to support it to try to reduce the cost.

Business manager Sophie Pate said it's something the school just can't afford.

"Schools budgets are tight and they are getting even tighter with inflation. We can't afford to fund this ourselves," she said.

She hopes builders, plumbers and bathroom fitters might help by donating their time.

"It's not an average toilet either, this is going to need extra facilities so we do need to knock through a wall. We really need people to get behind us," Pate added.