New classroom block plan for Derbyshire school

Plans submitted by Derbyshire County Council would see the new four-classroom block built outside the front entrance of Tibshelf School in Doe Lane. The plan details that a significant addition to the school is already needed after a decade, due to it catering for more children with special educational needs than it anticipated.

Papers submitted on behalf of the council say the current facilities and support for children with special educational needs are “oversubscribed”. They detail: “The school’s needs have developed since the original design towards the provision of special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

“This has led to the displacement of teaching spaces within the wider school to realise sufficient suitable space to meet the SEND teaching requirements. The purpose of the application is to provide additional accommodation as compensation, thereby alleviating teaching space pressures brought about by the SEND provision.”

The proposed building would be a single storey tall and would be built on grassland between the main school complex and the running track and football pitches.

A patch of grass next to the planned site would also be improved as part of the scheme, including a new boulder seating area.

It also includes a “vegetated wall system” which would be built around the side of the building facing the football pitches, aimed at partially obscuring the block.

A report written on behalf of the council says: “Should future expansion become necessary this could be achieved by adding additional accommodation along the splayed angle extending to the south.”

The application makes clear that the project would not increase the number of pupils who would be able to attend the school (currently more than 850), but provides improved facilities for those who need them most.

Additional parking would not be created either and staffing levels would not increase from the current 110 full-time and 42 part-time staff. Two trees would be cut down to make way for the development, likely planted as part of the scheme built just 10 years ago, which would be replaced elsewhere on the site.