We asked, you said, we did

We asked

We asked for your views on our proposals to expand Northway Special School through the creation of an annex on the Grasvenor Infant School site.

You said

We received 47 responses to the online questionnaire. 70% of respondents said they agree with the proposal to expand Northway School on the basis that the expansion of specialist placements:

• acknowledged the need for additional SEND specialist places in Barnet and the benefit to Barnet children
• acknowledged the need for additional secondary specialist places in Barnet
• recognised the expertise of the specialist staff at Northway school
• recognised the benefit to the borough of retaining Grasvenor site as a school.

30% said they disagree with the proposal and some of the following factors were cited as reasons why they had concerns:

• concerns about the increased traffic to the school site
• concerns about the need for more experience of teaching secondary age pupils
• concerns about having secondary aged pupils in a school alongside a primary school
• concerns for the Key Stage 1 children already attending Northway School who will have to move to a different site.

We did

We decided to proceed with the expansion of Northway School and are responding to the feedback given as follows:

• concerns about the increased traffic to the school site
• our response: the transport department is working closely with the school to ensure that the number of additional vehicles going to the site will be kept to a minimum

• concerns about the need for more experience of teaching secondary age pupils
• our response: Northway School is employing teaching staff with experience of teaching secondary age pupils

• concerns about having secondary aged pupils in a school alongside a primary school
• our response: whilst acknowledging this concern, there are a number of schools in Barnet that already admit both primary and secondary aged pupils

• concerns for the Key Stage 1 children already attending Northway school who will have to move to a different site.
• our response: whilst acknowledging this concern, the transition for children moving to the new school site was well prepared for. Northway staff reported at the start of term that the children had settled well into their new environment and were enjoying being in school

The expansion was completed by the start of the autumn term 2022. We emailed parents of children at Northway School on 6 September 2022 to reassure them that the building works were completed, and the school was fully operational for the start of term.