August 2024

New School Build Consultation 

We are pleased to inform parents and the local community that Applebee Wood Community Specialist School has been selected as part of the Department for Education’s School Rebuilding Programme. As such, a planning application is being assembled on our behalf by our planning consultants, Iceni Projects, which proposes to demolish the existing school building and develop a new school building and external areas at the existing site.

As you’ll likely be aware, the current school building is not fit for purpose and is coming to the end of its operational lifespan. Originally, the school was delivered for secondary school children with moderate learning difficulties, however we now accommodate students aged 4 to 16 with a wide variety of increasingly complex needs. The school now hosts children with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), including specialist non-ambulant classes, and there is a projected rise in children with higher than moderate learning difficulties in the area. To ensure that the school is able to continue to offer our students a high-quality learning environment which caters for their increasing range of complex needs, there is a fundamental requirement for a new school building and grounds to be delivered.

To inform interested parties about our proposals, we are hosting a public consultation event from 2:30pm to 7:30pm on 4^th September at the school. A consultation flyer has been prepared which provides more information about the proposed development, construction project, and the emerging planning application. This can be accessed by parents via email or popping into school to select a paper copy.

During the consultation event, members of the project team will be on hand to explain the proposals in more detail and answer any questions that you may have. If you are unable to attend the event but would like to speak to a member of the team about the project, please email manchester@iceniprojects.com quoting ‘Applebee Wood Planning Consultation’ in the subject title.

You may have seen the information published on our School website regarding the proposal for an increase in school numbers on the school site.

There is currently a formal consultation ongoing  from 19 June 2023  until 17 July 2023 and a meeting has been arranged to take place at Applebee Wood Community Specialist School on Wednesday 12 July 2023 at 10.00 am to 12.00 noon where a representative from Lancashire County Council will attend to provide further information and answer any questions you may have.

We will be ready to welcome 2 new classes as the building work is almost complete.

We are looking forward to ordering the furniture and the outside play equipment.