Remodelling a school to expand SEND capacity
LOCATION: YORK | PROJECT AREA: STRATEGIC ADVICE | PROJECT STATUS: COMPLETED
Sewell Education York is a successful long-term operational public private partnership which has involved the design, build, maintenance and operation of four primary schools in the city of York.
Sewell Advisory provides SPV management as well as governance, strategy advice and project management services for the partnership, and as part of our role we planned the remodelling of a primary school to help alleviate pressure on the city’s special educational needs estate.
The challenge
York is seeing significantly increased demand for special school places, particularly for pupils with autism or ADHD as their primary need. The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) population has increased by 29% in the past eight years. At the same time, falling birth rates mean the need for mainstream education places has decreased from its recent peak, and is projected to decline still further.
Hob Moor and Hob Moor Oaks are two schools in the south-west of York. Hob Moor is a mainstream school, and Hob Moor Oaks is a special school for pupils with SEND.
York, along with many other areas, is seeing significantly increased demand for special school places, particularly for pupils with autism or ADHD as their primary need. The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) population has increased by 29% in the past eight years. At the same time, falling birth rates mean the need for mainstream education places has decreased from its recent peak, and is projected to decline still further.
Hob Moor Academy and Hob Moor Oaks are co-located on the same site with the Academy providing mainstream places and Oaks providing SEND places. Rather than being designed as two separate facilities, the schools instead occupy a single, linked building, with mainstream and specialist classes grouped by key stage, rather than by which school they belong to. Demand has changed over time, with the mainstream primary school now under capacity, whilst the special school is over capacity.
The Council therefore tasked Sewell Advisory with investigating how building could be best repurposed to meet the changing demand profile for mainstream and SEND places.
The solution
We produced a feasibility study and plan for repurposing spaces across the schools to create more capacity for SEND students and a more inclusive environment for pupils in the mainstream setting.
We reviewed the school site to understand the current accommodation the school occupies and how they use it in day-to-day school life, looking at how this would compare to the proposed future numbers of mainstream and SEND pupils. We also analysed the size and type of spaces against best practice guidance published in the DfE Building Bulletins to understand any opportunities to repurpose over provided space as well as highlighting gaps in provision that had occurred as the school tried to create additional capacity in an ad-hoc way.
Hob Moor Oaks was originally designed to provide places for pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties or severe learning disabilities, and the spaces were sized and laid out accordingly. However, the changing profile of SEND pupils across the city means they now have significantly fewer students with these conditions on their roll and this has been countered by an increase in students with autism spectrum disorders – both at the special school and the mainstream school.
The current and forecasted cohorts require a different kind of teaching environment to meet their needs – smaller classrooms, with small breakout rooms for de-escalation or calming, and more one-on-one spaces rather than the larger classrooms required for pupils with profound and multiple learning disabilities. There is also less space required for school nurses and physiotherapists, and more space needed for sensory and nurture provision.
We found there is also a lack of storage space in the school, with many of the SEND pupils having multiple pieces of mobility equipment which they need to use either throughout the school day, or for the journey to and from school. This equipment is stored in classrooms or corridors rather than dedicated storage areas, which impacts on usable space for teaching activities and circulation.
The result
The review concluded that by repurposing space, more SEND places could be created to increase the capacity of Hob Moor Oaks, without detrimentally impacting on the mainstream provision.
Initial remodelling works took place in summer 2025, with the second phase set for summer 2026. Work was scheduled to take place in the summer holidays to avoid disruption for staff and pupils at the school, enabling teaching to take place as normal during the term and providing brand new learning spaces ready for the start of the new school year.
The works involved adapting existing Hob Moor space into four new classrooms for Hob Moor Oaks designed specifically to meet the needs of pupils with ASD, and with each new classroom having dedicated access to its own secure outdoor teaching and play area.
“The open and creative teamwork has relentlessly focused on pupil need and, despite challenging timescales, has delivered an excellent outcome for the school.”
Further works involved the creation of dedicated mobility equipment storage space for Hob Moor Oaks, to free up classroom and circulation space, and adapting dining arrangements to provide additional capacity and space for hall-based activities. Drop-off and parking arrangements were also amended to create additional capacity for drop-off and collection and to avoid traffic backing up on site at key times of day,
The new classrooms allow the school to accommodate 32 extra students with SEND – 32 children who are now able to receive specialist teaching and a safe, appropriate and bespoke learning environment tailored to their individual needs.
“The design team have taken the time to understand the needs of the school, and worked collaboratively to create the best design for the pupils and school community. This project means we have classrooms which are accessible and designed to meet the learning needs of the pupils.”
Want to learn more about our SEND projects?
Find out how we created a SEND sufficiency strategy for Rotherham.
