𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐫 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧’𝐬 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐱

The news reported earlier this week that the Government is filing plans to house a temporary facility for St Martin’s School at the old Strength Factory site on Glacis Road (to be clear, this was formerly a car showroom) raises serious concerns. It lays bare a failure not just in planning, but in foresight and in responsibility by this Government.

It has been clear soon after completion the new St Martin’s School was not big enough. Yet despite repeated questions, the Minister for Education has clung to the claim that the school was “future-proofed,” later pointing to the Wessex Campus as part of the expansion plan, with pupils from St Martin’s School having to share classroom space with
Governor’s Meadow and Bishop Fitzgerald School for several years.

Now, just a few years after opening, the Government is splitting these same pupils across multiple sites. Serious questions must be asked about the suitability of the temporary location and the Government’s glaring lack of forward planning. Why wasn’t a permanent solution, such as an extension, planned from day one, especially when it was visibly clear the school was too small from the start? The Government’s own commissioned SEN report noted a rising prevalence in SEN. That report included data from the Department of Education showing a clear increase in pupils with SEN across government schools, rising from 20 percent in 2014 to 30 percent in 2023. This is not a surprise. This is a signal, one that appears to have been ignored.

In Parliament, the Government has previously claimed that this increase reflects “better diagnosis” and “early intervention.” However, a government that truly plans aheadwould have proactively prepared to support this early intervention. So where is it? Where is the expanded provision for the Early Birds Nursery and for St Martin’s? Where are the extra classrooms? Where is the evidence that the Government took its own data seriously and
built accordingly?

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬, 𝐀𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐳, 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬: “The reality is that a school is not just a building, it is so much more than that. This school in particular is a highly specialist environment where valuable and life-changing work is carried out every single day by staff that are nothing short of exceptional at what they do. And now, we are potentially facing a situation where some pupils will remain at the main site, a purpose-built facility with a hydrotherapy pool, rebound therapy areas and more , while others are sent to a makeshift facility on Glacis Road.” She adds: “This doesn’t look like a well-thought-out plan. It feels more like a patch-up job, leaving some children with the short end of the deal, waiting while the Government figures out how to bring them back to their school or provides further updates on their plans for the future.”

A government that fails to plan for our children, especially those who need support the most, fails in one of its most basic duties.

We urge the Government: don’t just boast about the school you built. That kind of self-congratulation rings hollow when the reality does not match the rhetoric. What we ask, and what our children deserve, is simple: plan properly, build properly. Because if a school cannot even accommodate the children it was built for, it was never future-proofed. It was short-sighted and that lack of planning and foresight risks ultimately failing our future generations.