West Sussex has a new school for special needs children: Everything you need to know

Courtlands Independent Special School has taken over an historic grade II listed building at Parklands Avenue, Goring-by-Sea, which had been empty for half a decade.

The Mayor of Worthing, Jon Roser, cut the ribbon the new school at its open day on Friday (March 1).

Headteacher Mark Birkbeck spoke to the Worthing Herald about his plans for the school.

He said: “We are a school for children with additional needs – those with autism, Asperger's Syndrome, ADHD, specific learning difficulties, social and emotional mental health issues, as well as children who have been absent from school for a long time and are struggling to get back within large groups.

“It is vital that a school like ours is part of the local offer.”

After two-years of planning, the school has opened thanks to ‘huge financial input’ from the proprietor Peter Zalecki. Mr Birkbeck said more than a million pounds was invested into the ‘fantastic’ building and Mr Zalecki ‘continues to be committed financially’ to ‘supporting the school and helping its growth’.

Staff at the new school are committed to educating boys and girls, aged 11 to 14, with a ‘range of special educational needs’. Click here to see the 2024 prospectus.

The mission statement on the school website reads: “Courtlands offers a bespoke curriculum to meet the academic and personal developmental needs of its pupil by building on the strengths of each child, and providing a rich variety of educational experiences and therapy.

"Through our therapists and experienced staff, we aim to deliver a high quality education and a series of individualised support and intervention programmes that will enable pupils to overcome many of their personal difficulties and to be better prepared and more confident about their next steps after school.”

Mr Birkbeck said the school will hopefully ease the burden on parents due to the lack of school places available in West Sussex.

“Parents can’t find places for their children,” he said. “Us coming on board allow them to ease some pressure they’ve been having.

“We want to build the school slowly with a sense of direction. We are bringing on board a cohort of children who are mixed, girls and boys – key stage three age range.

"These children will have the privilege of being here and hopefully they take things on board and grab the opportunity. They need to work with us as it’s a two-way partnership.”

Mr Birkbeck – who has 15 years of experience as a head teacher at schools in Sussex and London – said he hopes the school will help the children enjoy education and ‘find their interests so they can give back to society’.

"Helping the children helps the parents, who are under pressure,” he said. “They have to look after the children at home as they, quite often, have fragmented schooling.

"We are keen to get this right. We are incredibly passionate about this project.”

Places at the school will be allocated by West Sussex County Council, to children who have an educational healthcare plan.

Mr Birkbeck explained: “The referral system will see us work with the parents and allow them to come and see what it’s like.

"We will be following the national curriculum for all the subjects. We will offer GCSEs and can go up and down depending on needs of the child. Every child will have a bespoke pathway, to see the reason why they are doing education.

“Hopefully in five / six years time, the school will be recognised as professional at the top of its game.”

The headteacher said there’s a lot of ‘desperate parents looking for places for their children’ but explained that an agreement with the local authority is needed before allocations are approved.

“We didn’t want this to be a business proposition,” Mr Birkbeck said. “This has to be about giving back to the community and giving back to the children for the right reasons. It’s a slow growth so we're not just going to try and fill up straight away.

"We're going to grow over the next couple of years and build ourselves up to being an established school of excellence for children with SEN.”