School statutory notices

Lewisham Council, Laurence House, 1 Catford Road, London SE6 4RU.

Deptford Park Primary School, Evelyn St, London SE8 5RJ.  This is a community school.

Deptford Park Primary School is a coeducational primary aged community school in Deptford, Lewisham, with approximately 230 pupils. 

The school has expressed an interest in providing a 40 place SLD Unit for Lewisham children utilising some spare capacity on the school site. 

As part of Lewisham’s wider Special Educational Needs and Disability place planning we have been working with the school to look at adding this provision, and the school is fully in support of this proposal.

Lewisham has robust SEND Place planning in place and this work has led to an increase in local SEN places. Over the last four years more than 300 additional places for children with SEND have been created, expanding resource base provision in mainstream primary schools as well as increasing special school places. This expansion has included an additional 70 SLD places having been created (placed on a satellite site whilst the work on an additional building at the main Watergate site is completed).  

However, demand continues to outstrip capacity when it comes to the need and request for SEN places. This is a national picture and not specific to Lewisham.  

We have seen an increase post pandemic in young learners with significant needs joining our mainstream schools, often presenting with significant needs in the areas of ‘cognition and learning’ and ‘communication and interaction’. Our schools are of course supporting these children in their community but cannot always meet needs in a busy mainstream environment.

Creating an SLD Unit within a mainstream school in the North of the borough would ensure that these young children can still attend a mainstream school, whilst having access to a highly specialised learning environment, catering for their specific needs. It would also provide parents/carers with more choice and control. 

The SEND Local Area Inspection in September 2024 and the new refreshed local SEND Partnership Strategy 2025-2030 focus on local choices for local children and on coproduction with all partners, specifically parents and carers. Developing such an additional local offer of an SLD Unit within a mainstream school environment will enhance this further.  

The government is currently working on wider SEND reforms, with indicators that the future proposal will include recommendations for the development of more SEN provisions within mainstream schools, which this proposal is already catering for. 

The data and feedback from our schools and parents/carers demonstrates an increasing demand for specialist provision for children and young people with significant learning difficulties and associated needs/comorbidities.   

As such the proposal to add an SEN provision/unit at Deptford Park Primary School comes as part of a wider piece of work that the council continues to undertake to enable more Lewisham young people to be educated in Lewisham schools. It also enables a local school to make best use of vacant spaces and generate additional income. 

Our Special School for young learners with SLD continues to receive large numbers of consultations for places, and despite having increased place number at the school significantly in recent years, cannot cater for this demand. This means children are needing to be placed in out of borough schools and/or are ‘held’ in their current mainstream school. 

An SLD Unit within mainstream school would provide additional spaces whilst also adding a different provision to the range of SEN provisions within Lewisham. Families who might be reluctant to accept a special school place in an SLD school for their child might find this option more appealing. 

Deptford Park would provide high quality SEN provision, supported by the relevant local authority services as well as by the SLD Primary School. 

This proposal forms part of Lewisham Council’s response to the statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places.

The objective of the proposal is to ensure sufficiency of places offering the right level of support to students with a primary need of SLD within the borough. 

This proposal forms part of Lewisham Council’s response to the statutory obligation to provide sufficient school places. 

The addition of the resource base will allow the school to cater for up to 40 pupils with SLD over time, with the first pupils arriving in May 2026 and September 2026.

It is not anticipated that the proposed unit will have any impact on other educational institutions within the local area. The proposal has been made to accommodate the continued increase in students diagnosed with SLD and requiring additional support.

The proposal seeks to utilise existing space within the school buildings and will only require light refurbishment/adaptations to ensure suitability for the pupils. Any costs arising will be met via council and/or school funds.