A FORMER Denton primary school will be turned back into one for children with special education needs and/or disabilities (SEND) if planning permission is granted.
Jonathan Pain, of Devon-based Phoenix Schools (South) Limited, has applied to Tameside Council for permission to change what is now the Denton Centre, at Acre Street.
The authority sold what was Denton Central Primary School to the firm in February – not it has progressed with its plans.
And documents detail its aims, as well as extra safety measures it plans to put in place, stating: “The day school would be a specialist school providing schooling for circa 40-50 children aged 8-16 years old.
“The school would support children with special educational needs who are unable to attend mainstream local education authority schools.
“The school would provide a valuable facility within the local area for parents and children who are unable to attend mainstream schools.
“The proposed staffing structure would comprise a headteacher and admin, teachers/instructors and teaching assistants with a total of 31 staff.
“The school would be open Monday – Friday from 9am to 4pm. The facilities would be closed outside of these times.
“Therefore, the proposed facility would operate at considerably reduced hours compared with the previous all-year operation of the former offices and pupil numbers at the school would be considerably lower than as a state primary school.
“Notwithstanding the high staff to pupil ratio to ensure close supervision of pupils, if a pupil becomes stressed or anxious in a particular situation, there is a high risk that the pupil could attempt to escape from the school grounds if the existing boundary treatment remains in place.
“Whilst teachers and staff are highly trained to deal with such situations and can use some level of physical intervention, if the school grounds are surrounded by low level fencing, there is a high risk of that child attempting to climb the fence, putting themselves and staff at risk of injury.
“Based on the Applicant’s extensive experience of operating special education needs school, a minimum of 2.4 metre high fencing, or other boundary enclosure, is necessary to prevent children from breaching the site boundaries, with 3m preferrable in high risk areas.
“Therefore, the proposals include the installation of fencing around the playground at a height of 3m to ensure the safety of pupils.”
The Denton Central Primary School site opened in 1911 as Duke Street Elementary school and was used as an Auxiliary Hospital during World War I
After closing in 2005, it lay empty for eight years before being used by Tameside Council as offices for its social services department from 2013 until 2023.
It has since remained vacant, although the car parking spaces have been used on a temporary basis by another nearby development.
Tameside Council’s Speaker’s Panel (Planning) committee will decide whether to grant or refuse permission.