A dream starts to become a reality at Rainbow Hub

There's excitement and smiles all round at Rainbow Hub in Mawdesley where work has commenced on a school for special educational needs children following approval of the planning application recently.

Funding has been secured through private donations from supporters of Rainbow Hub for the school which has been designed by Seven Architects and will be built by TMT Construction.

It is being developed for children with physical disabilities whose families struggle to find an environment that can meet their physical, social and learning needs.

With the growing number of children needing places in a specialist setting, local authority schools are not always able to meet specific needs of children with physical disabilities who deserve the same access to an education as any other child.  A combined education and health approach at Rainbow Hub will help children to lead as full and independent lives as possible.    

When open, the school will initially offer places to children aged 5 – 11 years who have physical challenges but can follow a personalised curriculum, with future plans to extend to young people up to 16 years.

There will be several therapy rooms, a ground level Rebound Therapy trampoline, an accessible life skills room and a hydrotherapy pool. The building has been designed with shared spaces which will be used by all the services across Rainbow Hub. They also plan to make the pool available to children and adults with disabilities outside of school hours.

Lyndsay Fahey, CEO, Rainbow Hub, said: "We started with a dream and, after many months of planning and hard work, we are at the beginning of the programme to make the dream a reality.  

"There is much still to do and we are waiting to hear the results of the Ofsted pre-registration visit, but our supporters have been wonderful and we are so excited that work has started.

"This development will allow us to extend the good work we already do in conductive education and our specialist nursery. It will allow us to provide support to children who may sometimes be over-looked but deserve every opportunity to become as independent as possible."