An award-winning Portadown secondary school has submitted an application to ABC Council in a bid to extend its special educational needs (SEN) provision.
The application, submitted on behalf of St John the Baptist’s College on the Moy Road, by Board of Trustees member Reverend Father P Clarke, requests permission to develop two modular classroom units.
The units would be used to provide SEN provision and each would comprise two 60 metre squared classrooms to the left and right of the building separated by a lobby, toilet blocks and individual 5.7 metre squared sensory rooms with doors connecting to each classroom.
Each classroom would also benefit from a new “adjustable height, interactive white board” and will have suitable emergency exit access from the internal classrooms.
If approved, the units would sit adjacent to one another with the first outside the main block of the school building and the second positioned down a small flight of steps beside the lower block of the main school building.
Just last month, the school proudly finished out the academic year by securing four wins at the prestigious Local Women Magazine Education Awards.
They were delighted to scoop Best Post Primary School in NI, Best Post Primary School, Co Armagh, Excellence in Pastoral Care and Wellbeing and Excellence in Vocational Learning.
Related: Portadown school celebrates ‘major’ success with four prestigious wins
The awards were a celebration of the school’s holistic and nurturing approach to education, where academic and vocational achievements are balanced with a focus on the personal growth and confidence-building of every student.
Expansion of the school’s SEN provision – if approved – will undoubtedly be an asset to ensuring that “every child feels valued and nurtured and are able to achieve their full potential”.
