Special Needs children WILL stay at Ashton-on-Mersey School after Trafford intervenes in bussing out row

EXCLUSIVE

Parents of  children with special needs who had been told their children would  be bussed out to another school when they start in September, have been told their children can stay at Ashton on
Mersey School alongside other new Year 7 pupils following the intervention of Trafford Borough Council.

A meeting between the school and the parents was held at the end of last week when the school said their children would only be taken to a school in the same Trust – Broadoak in Partington – if they were going to do specific vocational lessons like beauty and engineering which many pupils at Ashton do on a daily basis.

Prior to the meeting the parents of up to 20 children who had Ashton on the Education Health Care Plans, which gave them the legal right to attend the school, had been told their children would register at the school, but be taken by bus each day to Broadoak and brought back by bus in time for the end of the school day.

But Sale Today has been told   that the parents had been warned they shouldn’t view the turn around in events as a victory,  because the school would still have difficulties  in coping with such a large number of SEND – special educational needs and disability – children entering the school.

One parent who we’ve agreed not to name so her son remains anonymous,  said: “They are allowing the children be educated at Ashton.   It’s going to be very crowded and it will take a while to sort it out, they said.   They have some money but it is up to them what they want to do that.

“They have said, but this for anyone in any of the years, because they are oversubscribed at the school, some subjects are done  at Broadoak anyway and so our children will be taken there for those lessons, but that is the same for everybody.

“We’ve been told  not to say this is a victory.  We  will still have to have meetings and that sort of thing of things but we have got your transition days, and the children can go to those and feel they are part of the school.

“I have to say I felt a bit sorry for them, they did explain a lot of things.  They still have things to do… lots of crossing Ts  and dotting the i’s, but at least they will be at the school.”

Ashton-on-Mersey has one of the highest ratios of SEND children compared to other schools in Trafford.  It has a reputation for nurturing children with special needs which is why it has been a popular choice for parents.

In a letter to parents in April the headteacher Aidan Moloney said that they were having to find new ways of dealing with the number of children with special needs because they had a lack of resources to cope. They outlines a plan to take the SEND children in year 7 off site by buss after registration two go to Broadoak school six miles away.

Broadoak is one of six school in The Dean Trust portfolio and while registered as “Good” by Ofsted, the parents were furious their children were not staying at AoM which is ranked as “Outstanding. They claim the action was discriminatory and illegal.  Last week solicitors for the families missed a statement saying they were seeking a judicial review of the decision.

This afternoon Jill Colbert, Trafford Council’s Interim Corporate Director for Children, Families and Well-Being, said: “It would be inappropriate to comment on the parents’ case as it is named as an ‘interested party’ in the proceedings.

“The Council is working closely with the Trust  and have recently had a very positive meeting to consider how best the Trust can continue to provide for all children at its schools and the council has agreed to provide additional resources to facilitate this. These additional resources will be used to maintain the high standards of education provision for all children attending the Trust’s schools and to ensure that those children with EHCPs, which name Ashton on Mersey School for September 2016, will have their education delivered, as is the case with other pupils of Ashton on Mersey School, predominantly at the Ashton on Mersey site”.

Sale Today has asked The Dean Trust, on behalf of the school to comment, but as yet we have had no response.