Expansion of Baytree School

Baytree School is the only school in North Somerset designated to provide education to children with severe and profound learning difficulties.

To meet rising demand for school places, we are investing £18m to expand the school, supporting more pupils and families from our SEND community to access some of the best facilities in the region.

The expansion will take the school from operating on a single site that currently caters to around 72 children at The Campus in Weston-super-Mare, to a two-site school with a new building for between 65 and 85 more pupils off Brookfield Walk in Clevedon. The two sites will be able to offer around 120 school places.  

The expansion’s design responds to what our SEN community told us in consultation. The new site, with extra places within the district, will include facilities tailored to a range of different needs, with adaptations such as integral hoists for children with limited mobility, sensory rooms, provision across a single storey for those unable to use stairs, outdoor space and more.  

By listening to this valuable feedback, we have been able to develop our offer so that it can better meet the changing needs of our young people, bringing them back into the district for their schooling,   

As a result, the expanded school will have a hugely positive impact on more local pupils than ever before, providing them with opportunities for education, independence and inclusion.

It is hoped that the new school building will be ready to open in the 2023/24 school year.

Following a decision to continue with expansion of Baytree School by the Executive in April 2022, the project contractors – Willmott Dixon – have now started on the new site off Brookfield Walk, Clevedon.

Over the coming weeks, Willmott Dixon will be setting up temporary fencing around the site, building their temporary cabins and constructing the site entrance. Following this, works to level out the ground in the main construction area will begin.

Willmott Dixon will soon be launching their own webpages, which will outline all of the upcoming works on site. We will share the link on this page, once it is available.

For more information about Baytree School can be found on their website.

The proposed expansion of Baytree School is part of the Children’s Services Strategy to provide more places for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The 2017/18 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and Alternative Provision Review acknowledged the growing number of children and young people with identified SEND and our responsibility to provide appropriately to meet their diverse needs as locally as possible.

A report outlining the need to expand Baytree Special School was presented to the Children and Young People’s Services Policy and Scrutiny Panel at their meeting in June 2019.

Our commissioning strategy 2021-2024 outlines our approach to making sure there is the right number of pre-school and school places in North Somerset: This latest commissioning strategy was approved by the Executive on 23 June 2021. The final document is now being formatted for publication on our website for the beginning of September 2021.

For historic details of consultation periods and the planning process for Baytree School visit our proposed expansion of Baytree school page.