Sandside Lodge School Opens
Cumbria County Council held an official opening event last month on 8 October 2019 for the new state-of-the-art Sandside Lodge School in Ulverston.
As part of this opening event, Cumbria County Council’s Chairman Cllr Christine Bowditch, together with pupils from Sandside Lodge, cut a ribbon and declared the school officially open.
Bowman Riley designed the £8.6 million Sandside Lodge for Seddon Construction providing a purpose-built, 80-place special school next to Ulverston Victoria High School.
This new school forms part of Cumbria’s ambitious and wide-ranging Inclusion Strategy to provide modern teaching facilities for children aged between two and 19 with severe learning difficulties.
As well as state-of-the-art teaching spaces, the new school has a wide range of facilities including a sensory movement and regulation room, an aquatic therapy pool and an experience room.
Cllr Sue Sanderson, Cumbria County Council Cabinet Member for Schools and Learning and Chair of the Governors at Sandside Lodge School said:
“The new school building provides state-of-the-art facilities for special needs learning and is already making a world of difference for both the children and staff. The contrast could hardly be greater with the old school site which didn’t meet modern day standards for access and learning.”
Donna Stretton, Headteacher at Sandside Lodge School, said:
“The new Sandside Lodge School building offers a huge range of additional experiences and opportunities for our students. We now have the space to be creative and provide an even more personalised approach to learning. The specialised rooms such as Aquatic Therapy, Rebound Therapy, Sensory Movement and Regulation, Experience Room and Thrive Play allow the staff to support students with all aspects of their development, including physical, sensory and emotional, in a more accessible way. The students have waited a long time for this building but it’s been well worth the wait.”
Ed Wootton, regional director at Seddon, said: “It’s been a privilege to bring the excellent facilities at Sandside Lodge to life, creating a fantastic space for the community’s young people who have complex educational needs to learn and grow. Throughout the project, we worked closely with all partners to ensure that the school would be ready for this academic year. Everyone’s hard work has paid off and it’s great to see the pupils enjoying the new school.”
Well done to everyone in the team that have made this project a real success including Seddon, Scott Hughes Design, Tace and our architect, Craig Mewse.
See the following article for more information about the school’s opening from Cumbria County Council and the following video.
Images courtesy of Seddon.
