Getty ImagesA new multi-million pound school campus for young people with special educational needs (SEN) has opened its doors in Londonderry for the first intake of pupils.
Ardnashee School and College campus cost about £32m to construct and will provide state-of-the art facilities for about 320 pupils in the near future, acting principal Raymond McFeeters has said.
The new campus includes specialist classrooms, a sensory room, an immersive room, hydrotherapy pool, sports halls and pitches, horticulture space and accessible playgrounds.
The school is currently in the process of moving hundreds of pupils to its new campus on the Northland Road.
Mr McFeeters said the campus has been more than 10 years in the making and said he was immensely proud to welcome the first cohort of pupils this week.
“To see the joy and delight in the faces of the kids as they came into school was something to behold,” he told BBC News NI.
Currently, there are approximately 200 pupils on site, with the number expected to rise to about 320 by September.
“We have four separate sites, we have a satellite site in Strathfoyle Academy and we have the upper and lower campus on the Racecourse Road and then the Northland Road campus here, so the kids are across all of those sites.”
Mr McFeeters said the newly-opened campus has the facilities and resources that pupils need and deserve.
He said so many families have visited the new site and are really excited that their children will be able to avail of things like the hydrotherapy pool and sensory room.
“Parents understand that these facilities are right up there with the best in the country and it gives them that sense that their young people are being valued by the education system.”
Parents and guardians were invited to tour the campus ahead of its opening.
Parent Roma McCormick said she and many other parents have been completely blown away by the new campus.
“We are just so delighted with it – it’s absolutely fabulous,” she said.
Ms McCormick said knowing her son is in a secure environment, where she knows he is safe and receiving a quality education, is reassuring for her as a parent.
“My own son wouldn’t understand danger or if something caught his eye he could stray, so knowing it is so safe here and he can’t get out anywhere and won’t do anything that can harm him is very important for me.”
Martin McCallion’s son, Max, is in second year and said he is very excited that he will be attending the new school.
“The facilities are outstanding here for our young children,” he said.
“This investment is really needed in the north west and hopefully this is only the start of it.
“Max is preverbal, so we try and fight for everything for our children and this is just so well deserved for our kids.”
‘I was just buzzing’
Emma O’Kane is the coordinator of the sensory curriculum at Ardnashee and said the new facility is a fantastic place for students with complex needs to thrive.
“We deliver all our curriculum through sensory needs so things like visual sights, touch, smells and so on to create this calming atmosphere,” Ms O’Kane said.
“A lot of the children here in this class are non verbal, but their smiles when they came in this morning really told their stories.
“They tell their stories through their eyes and body reactions and that tells us everything we need to know.
“We heard some laughs today, proper belly laughs that we haven’t ever heard before and it was just amazing.”
