Updates on specialist and mainstream SEND provision in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire Academy for Inspirational Learning (GAIL): a new special school in Gloucester
Amazing progress continues to be made on the construction of the new ÂŁ19.5m special school set to open in January 2027.
As part of a recent visit to the site, some of us were able to see first-hand the extent of the works that have been completed and how much has been achieved since construction work started last year. See below a picture of the school from the outside - looking almost ready, a Food Technology lab being fitted out and a view from one of the classrooms.
It is anticipated that contractors will be off site towards the end of November, at which point the building will be handed over to the academy trust. This gives the headteacher, and the other staff who have already been appointed, time to get the classrooms ready before the Christmas break and ahead of the first pupils arriving early in the new year.
The new school, which has been carefully designed to include a range of specialist classrooms and facilities, will be run by Reach South Academy Trust. The school has been designed to accommodate 200 children and young people aged 4 – 16 with a range of special educational needs.
Families who have questions about the process for securing a place at the new school should contact the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) Casework Team on 01452 426922 or by email at sengenenq@gloucestershire.gov.uk. If consultations are already underway in relation to a child or young person's placement, their allocated caseworker will update the family directly.
Update on the new SEND Sufficiency Strategy 2026-2031
Gloucestershire County Council’s cabinet approved a new five-year strategy to ensure families can access the right support, in the right place, at the right time, as demand for SEND provision continues to grow.
The Strategy (consulted on earlier in the year) sets out how Gloucestershire will ensure there is enough support and provision for children and young people with SEND aged 0 to 25 over the next five years.
Demand for SEND support has grown significantly in the county, with the number of children and young people with an EHCP increasing from 4,854 in 2022 to 7,521 in January 2026. To meet this growing need, the strategy aims to increase specialist provision across the county so that more children can access support closer to home.
Key plans include:
- Expanding specialist SEND provision where demand is greatest.
- Developing more specialist bases within mainstream primary and secondary schools.
- In addition to GAIL, opening another special school in Cheltenham, together providing up to 400 additional places by 2028.
- Strengthening SEND support in early years settings.
- Improving post-16 education, training and employment opportunities for young people with SEND.
Overall, the strategy seeks to ensure children and young people receive the right support in their local communities, reducing the need for long journeys and helping them stay connected to family, friends and local services.
For more information about the new SEND Sufficiency Strategy 2026-2031, including an easy-read version, please see the Gloucestershire's Local Offer for Parent Carers, Support for Families with SEND.
A fully-accessible version of the strategy on the website is currently being created and will be shared in a future edition of this newsletter.
Adaptations to existing schools and settings
In addition to new buildings, there is a series of capital projects, which focus on adaptations to existing schools and settings to improve the space for children and young people with additional needs.
The Shrubberies School: improvement works to the secondary block and new group room.
Pupils and staff at The Shrubberies School in Stonehouse are enjoying and benefiting from some recent changes and improvements to the school’s secondary (11-16) block, providing additional and enhanced spaces to support teaching and learning.
The number of children and young people attending the school has increased over time, with the need for more individualised approaches for some pupils. The school identified that they needed a greater number of small, flexible spaces where pupils can receive individual or smaller-group support.
As part of the improvements, former changing and shower rooms have been refurbished to create new group and intervention rooms, making better use of previously underused accommodation. A new, specially equipped hygiene room has also been provided, alongside improvements to the existing toilet facilities.
Adjacent to the secondary block, a new timber cabin space has been installed to provide valuable additional break-out space. This flexible room will give the school another welcoming space in which pupils can take part in individual and small-group activities away from the main classroom environment.
Together, these improvements provide the school with a wider range of flexible and specialist spaces, enabling the school to better respond to the needs of the children and young people placed with them.
For more information about the school, please visit The Shrubberies School record on Gloucestershire's Local Offer for Parent Carers, Support for Families with SEND.
Sladewood Primary Academy in Stroud: additional accommodation means more places available
Sladewood Primary Academy in Stroud is a special school for children aged 4 – 11 years with a range of complex special educational needs.
Numbers have grown steadily since the school opened in September 2023 and the school, the academy trust and the local authority have worked in partnership over recent months to enable the school to accommodate a further ten pupils from the start of this school year.
This was made possible through the refurbishment of a building on the site that was vacated earlier this by volunteer-led playgroup, after they moved into another building on the site, which they now share with the local community group.
This enabled Sladewood Academy to create Deer Class (joining the mice, hedgehogs, squirrels, rabbits and badgers already on site), which created ten additional places at the school.
The project involved upgrading the heating and cooling systems within the building, providing the necessary IT connectivity and improving the toilet facilities. This was alongside generally decorating and refreshing the accommodation. The new classroom has its own dedicated external spaces.
For more information about the school, please visit Sladewood Academy’s record on Gloucestershire's Local Offer for Parent Carers, Support for Families with SEND.
For more information on mainstream and special schools, colleges and settings across the county, please visit the new page SEND sufficiency: creating more local support and school places and recently-updated Education pages, as well as individual listings on Gloucestershire’s Local Offer website for Parent Carers, Support for Families with SEND .