Town's former free school to become new SEND school

A new school for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) will be opened after the government confirmed it would fund the project.

The school will be based at the site of the former Saxmundham Free School in Suffolk, which closed in August 2024.

Unity Schools Partnership will run the 126-place provision for children aged three to 16 with severe learning difficulties.

Andrew Reid, Suffolk County Council's cabinet member for education and SEND, said it was "great news for SEND families in east Suffolk".

The new school will be funded by the Department for Education.

Georgina Ellis, the executive director of SEND at Unity Schools Partnership, said: "We are acutely aware of the specific need for a specialist SEND school in north Suffolk and we are looking forward to working with partners to deliver a setting that the whole community can be proud of."

The trust, which runs 40 schools, including five special schools in Suffolk and Essex, has yet to say when the new school would open.

Reid said: "The council has spent time carefully mapping the needs and disabilities of children and young people across Suffolk and evidencing where provision is most needed.

"This new provision is one of other announcements to follow about extra places."

The government previously allocated £6m towards the school, which the council said was unlikely to cover the full cost of the new school.

On Friday, Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, the Labour MP for Suffolk Coastal, said the government was now willing to fund the full £20m cost of reopening the site as a facility for children with SEND.

She thanked the nearly 700 families who had had backed her campaign to reopen the school, adding: "Hundreds of families right across east Suffolk will be breathing a sigh of relief that this decision has been made."

Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.