MP joins fight to save Woburn Sands school’s vital SEND classrooms

Mid Bedfordshire MP Alistair Strathern is campaigning to help a Woburn Sands school caught in a bureaucratic nightmare after securing extra classrooms.

Swallowfield Primary School has recently expanded under the Central Bedfordshire Council Schools for the Future scheme (SFF). It gained a new teaching block and the refurbishment of a temporary block/modular building – which has been used as teaching space for many years.

But delays in the SFF meant the school expanded to primary (years 5 & 6) without the works being finished. As a result, CBC provided the school with another 'temporary' classroom block. With so much of the cost of this new classroom block held in its installation – and removal – the school negotiated an agreement with CBC for them to retain this new block permanently.

Unfortunately, because the new block sits on a grass lawn, the retention of the unit in its current location breaches Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, because on a technicality the school is reducing playing fields on the school site.

Mr Strathern, has now secured a meeting with Education Minister, Damien Hinds, to try and save vital SEND intervention space at Swallowfield Primary School. In the House of Commons chamber on Monday, he outlined the issue affecting Swallowfield.

He said: “I know how important it is to retain this building at Swallowfield Primary, not only for staff but also for students who receive crucial SEND provision at this facility.

“As a former teacher I know how important protecting recreational space is, but the building has been built on land that’s never been used for recreational purposes.

“It’s paramount the building is allowed to remain open and I’m pleased to have secured a meeting with the Minister to advocate on the school’s behalf to try ensure it doesn’t close unnecessarily because of a blunt application of Section 77 regulation.”

After the debate Mr Strathern said Swallowfield would prefer to keep the extra building space as it is a more beneficial resource to the school than a small patch of boggy lawn that has never, in the school's 40 year history, been used as playing field or playing space.