A school to fit all needs

It's been a long wait for the children and staff of Hob Moor Junior and Infant schools.

Plans have been under way to replace their ageing, 1950s-built corrugated aluminium school for years.

For the past 12 months, while they have been carrying on as usual in their old "tin school", a new children's centre has been taking shape right next door.

It can't have been easy, running a busy primary school next to a building site. Now, however, the wait is over.

Children said goodbye to their old school on April 7. And today, after a frantic Easter holiday in which staff enlisted the help of parents and just about everyone else they could think of to complete the move, life in their new school began.

Hob Moor head teacher Karl Jarvis can hardly believe it. "It's just a wonderful place to be," he says. "The old buildings had their charm. But they were dying on their feet. This is a special environment in which to be. We know that it will lift the spirits of everyone, and in so doing, lift the spirits of the whole area."

The £7.5 million Hob Moor Children's Centre which officially opens today is far more than a primary school.

Brought together in a single, modern building under one roof are:

Two new schools - Hob Moor Community Primary School and Hob Moors Oaks Special School for children with special needs

The Cherry Tree Nursery

A Fun Club offering pre-school, after-school and holiday activities for five-to-11s

The House, home to a family support team and Sure Start programme.

The idea of having all these facilities on one site is to provide "wrap-around care".

Busy parents can bring their children here between 8am and 6pm on school days and during holidays, and know they will be safe - whether they're having breakfast, in class, or taking part in after-school activities.

Integrating special needs children in the same building with mainstream schoolchildren means a lot to Helen Willis, whose daughters, Lucie, eight, and Emilie, six, are autistic.

The children receive a first-class education from trained experts, Helen says. But they also mix with other children at break and meal times, and in the nursery.

"It gives them a chance to be part of the real world," she says.

There is, points out Sue Williams, head teacher of Hob Moor Oaks School, an "astonishing amount of expertise" at the centre - from primary school and special needs teachers through to nursery staff, health professionals and family support social workers.

Bringing them all together under one roof makes all those different services more accessible and joined up.

"It is about learning for all," Sue says.

It is the sheer quality of the facilities, however, that is most impressive.

The children's centre has been built using private finance under a "mortgage"-style deal through which the city council will contract private firm Sewell Education to maintain, clean and look after the building for the next 30 years.

The use of private funding for public projects may not be to everyone's liking. But on a brief tour of the children's centre, Mr Jarvis's joy at the quality of the new facilities is easily understandable.

The new building is arranged around two central courtyards which act as secure children's play areas.

In the centre, dividing the two courtyards from each other, is a "therapy suite". Here, as well as a school nurse and clinic, there are facilities for physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and a mental health nurse.

There is also a truly spectacular hydrotherapy pool, which froths and bubbles on demand and will be equipped with floating switches which will enable children to turn on different lights while in the water.

The Cherry Tree Nursery is to the left of the main entrance, while the classrooms for both Hob Moor Community Primary and Hob Moor Oaks schools are set out on either side of a wide central avenue in a building that surrounds all four sides of the playgrounds.

Special needs classrooms face inwards towards the courtyards, the primary school classrooms outwards. The central avenue itself is wide and bright - more like a series of classrooms than a corridor. Skylights overhead provide wonderful natural light. The "avenues", as they're known, act as a shared activity area, where children from the two schools can mingle, explains Sue Williams.

The House, where the family support and Sure Start teams are based, completes the range of services offered.

The family support team, previously based at the Family Centre in Holgate, works with families who have children aged up to ten and who are struggling to cope with everything from bereavement, abuse and family break-up to drug abuse.

Sure Start offers a drop-in, toy library and other facilities and activities for families with young children.

Mr Jarvis admits it will be a while yet before everything is working fully. Work will begin on demolishing the old Hob Moor Junior and Infants school next week, for a start. That will be disruptive - and until the work is finished, the outdoor sports facilities can't be completed.

But it has been worth the wait, he says.

"From the primary school perspective, it seems as though we have been looking forward to a new school building for 50 years - from almost the moment the old school was built! And this is just fantastic."

The mum's verdict:

SHE didn't realise it before her two autistic daughters were born, says Helen Willis: but she is living in the right place to ensure Lucie, eight, and Emilie, six, get the best possible start in life.

The last couple of years, while the new Hob Moor Oaks Special School that is part of the new children's centre was being planned and built, were pretty tough. The staff were wonderful, she says - but having the school split over three sites did make life difficult.

It is all worth it now, however, the Hob Moor Oaks parent governor says. The facilities at the new school are "wonderful", she says. "We have spoken to acquaintances around the country, and they don't have anything like this."

Best of all, is the way children at the special school have been brought under the same roof as mainstream schoolchildren.

They have their own classrooms - but there are also shared spaces, such as the central avenues that divide the primary school classrooms from the special school classrooms. And the children can also mingle at break times, dinner times, and during the pre-school and after-school activities.

When she was young, Helen says, special needs children were seen as scary and different. "This generation of children will grow up not finding them so scary. The consequences of that will be immeasurable in terms of tolerance, understanding and acceptance."

Being able to mingle with mainstream schoolchildren will also be great for the special needs children themselves. "Seeing other children, being around other children, eating in the same room as other children, sharing facilities such as the library... it gives the children chance to be part of the real world," she says.

What is in the new Hob Moor Children's Centre

- Hob Moor Community Primary School, replacing the old, aluminium Hob Moor Infant and Junior Schools

- Hob Moor Oaks Special School. The school was set up two years ago to provide specialist education for children with a range of special needs, but was spread over three sites: the old Northfield and Lidgett Grove schools, and specialist classes for children with autism, based at Hob Moor Junior. The school has now been brought together on one site

- Hob Moor Fun Club, which will run breakfast clubs for children aged five to 11 and their parents, and after-school and summer activities - seeing the children's centre open from 8am to 6pm

- Cherry Tree Neighbourhood Nursery, for children aged up to five, which will be open 8am to 6pm 51 weeks of the year

- The House, home to the family support and Sure Start teams

York schools and private finance

The Hob Moor Children's Centre is the third schools building in York to have been completed using private finance, and the most ambitious. St Barnabas School, off Leeman Road, was completed at the end of last year, while St Oswald's School, in Fulford, opened in January.

Between them, the two schools at the new children's centre and the two earlier private finance primary schools cater for 1,100 youngsters. The three projects have cost about £17 million in total.

The new Hob Moor Children's Centre is believed to be the first in the country to house a special needs school and a mainstream primary school under one roof.

Updated: 10:00 Thursday, April 27, 2006