School gets ‘sensory room’ funding

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Friday, 13 January 2023 13:14

By Gavin McEwan - Local Democracy Reporter

A North Herefordshire primary school is to get nearly £110,000 of developers’ money to build a library and extension to its “sensory room”, to meet what it says is a growing need for such facilities.

The money comes from a so-called section 106 agreement for local infrastructure improvements made with the developers of the Porthouse Farm estate on the north edge of the town.

According to Herefordshire Council’s decision to allocate the money, it will go on two single-storey extensions to either side of St Peter’s Primary School’s main entrance, in order to meet the “increasing numbers and the diverse needs” of pupils.

The library will house books currently stored in the school’s corridors, while the sensory room will help the school, in Cherry Tree Close, meet the needs of “increasing numbers of pupils, especially in key stage 1, with a variety of conditions including ADHA [sic], autism and sensory-associated conditions”.

The school has appointed C J Bayliss of Hereford, which submitted the lowest of three bids, to carry out the work. The school will also contribute £2,388 to the total cost.

The council has also agreed that a further £2,951 of Section 106 money will go to converting a storage room into additional toilet at Goodrich Primary School south of Ross-on-Wye.

This money arises from conversion of the village’s old school building next door into four houses.

The school will make up the rest of the £9,209 cost.