Plans for a new school for children with special educational needs (SEN) in Bracknell are one step closer to fruition.

A 50-pupil Social, Emotional Mental Health School will be built on the site of the former All Saints CE School in Warfield. It will be for children aged 11-16 years old.

The primary school closed in July 2022 and has been left vacant since.

The new SEN school is being delivered as one of the two specialist provisions within the Bracknell borough funded by the Department of Education. The other will be a specialist school for children with autism in Buckler’s Park.

In return for the school funding, Bracknell Forest Council must reduce it’s in-year overspend on SEN.

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The authority is currently predicted to overspend by £8.5 million this financial year – a reduction of half a million pounds from last year.

The new school is projected to open in September 2025.

It comes as Bracknell Forest has a higher proportion of children on an Education, Health and Care Plan compared to the national average.

Documents from the Department for Education said: “Bracknell Forest Council is forced to send far too many pupils to out of area, high-cost provision due to the lack of suitable, high-quality settings in the borough.

“Without the introduction of new, local capacity, we expect this usage of high cost independent non-maintained special school placements to continue to rise.”

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There is currently no specialist school for Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) in Bracknell Forest, for which demand has sky-rocketed since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The number of children and young people with SEMH needs has increased by 91 per cent since 2019 to 2024.

The site, located to the north-east of Bracknell, sits between All Saints Rise and Harvest Ride.

It was previously a two-form entry school for around 420 pupils.

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Plans submitted to Bracknell Forest Council’s planning department indicate a proposal to demolish the existing classroom block and temporary classrooms.

A new two-storey teaching wing will be built and retained buildings will be joined together.

The existing pitch roof hall and administrative black will be remodelled and refurbished.

Entrances for cars and sports fields will be unchanged.

Members of the public consulted on the plans ‘expressed support’ for the new SEMH school, but some concerns relating to parking, maintenance of trees and the operation hours of the school were raised.

The application has been validated by Bracknell Forest Council’s planning department and a final decision is yet to be made.