Shared school site 'step forward'

The move has been hailed as "a big step forward" for the schools

Building work on a multi-million pound project to put special needs pupils alongside their peers from a mainstream school on shared sites is now complete.

Students aged over 16 from Grove Park Special School, Crowborough, and Beacon Community College are moving to one site in the East Sussex town.

Younger pupils from both schools are at the community college's old site.

Angela Wellman, assistant head teacher of Grove Park School, said the co-location was "a big step forward".

She said the move would "provide great opportunities for inclusion".

The construction work was to provide new facilities on both sites.

Time capsule

£3.6m came from the government for the re-location project, under which both schools keep their separate status, and £3.5m came from East Sussex County Council.

The scheme included developing specialist facilities for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) at Grove Park, as well as an outreach service for children with ASD in other local schools.

A time capsule was buried under a path at the new Green Lane base on Wednesday to mark the end of the building work.

It was filled with information about current affairs, fashion and television, and included music CDs and a video of the pupils.