More Specialist Places and a New School Building for Children with Autism in Bristol

It’s been a long planning battle, but Merchants Academy Primary School and Venturers Academy will get their much needed purpose built school in Bristol.

The existing Merchants Academy Primary School, nursery and Venturers Academy – a specialist school for children with autism – will be relocated and expanded to create a two-form entry primary school with a nursery and expanded Autism Spectrum Condition School (ASC) on existing school land on the site of Merchants Academy Secondary School.

Both the primary school and Venturers Academy are located on a separate site on Withywood Road. Both have severely run-down school buildings at the end of their life, needing complete re-building.

The schools currently cater for 263 primary school students, 38 nursery children and 70 Autism Resource Base pupils.

Venturers Academy itself currently provides seven classes for school years 1 to 5 and five classes for years 7 – 11. The much needed school opened in September 2016 and provides a specialist education and provision for children with a ‘primary’ diagnosis of ASC and who have an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP).

The new school build would open up the availability of school places in the south of Bristol, with 420 places for primary places, 38 nursery children and 84 at the Autism Resource Base.

A previous application at the site was rejected by the Development Control Committee A last year due to the overshadowing and impact on the surrounding residential properties. The removal of catergory A trees from the site was also problematic.

Changes to the development including locating the school building a further 1.6 meters from the north eastern boundary with Hareclive Road and additional shadow studies saw the revised plans approved.

For more information about Venturers Academy, visit: www.venturersacademy.org

If you have a child with autism who is struggling with education in a mainstream school in Bristol, you can find out more about applying for EHCPs here: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/policies-plans-strategies/send-in-education

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