Approval given for two new special free schools in Cambridgeshire
A Fenland town is finally to get its much longed for special needs school with the announcement today (Wednesday) that Cambridgeshire County Council has been given the Government go-ahead to build two new schools.
The Government has given the green-light for the county council to establish two new special free schools in the county.
One is a 210-place, multiple needs (SEND) school in March and the other a 60-place school in Gamlingay for children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs.
The next stage in the process is to invite multi-academy trusts to apply to run the new schools.
Cambridgeshire has already invested £60m in creating 150 new special school places at new or existing schools, but more are needed.
The March school is due to open in September 2026 and will cater for 210 children and young people, aged 2 to 19.
Alongside a general need for extra special school places across the county, there is a particular need for more places in Fenland.
Fenland is currently the least well served district in Cambridgeshire for special needs, with Meadowgate Academy in Wisbech being the only special school in the area.
Children in the district can face lengthy journeys to and from the nearest school able to meet their needs.
Last year the issue was highlighted when March mum Amy Loveridge launched a petition calling for a new special school in the town after stating her son Archie was missing out on education because of a lack of special needs places in the district.
Amy was battling to find a suitable place for the then five-year-old Archie, who like other children was being faced with having to travel by bus dozens of miles to Ely, Wisbech or Littleport or even Huntingdon and St Neots to find a SEND place.
She said Fenland has more than double the number of children waiting for SEND places than any other district in Cambridgeshire, with the district having only one special needs school – Meadowgate Academy in Wisbech – to ctaer for the whole area as well as parts of neighbouring Norfolk.
But Coun Hoy said expecting a neuro-typical primary age child to travel up to 45 minutes or up to 75 minutes at secondary level is a big ask "let alone" a child with special needs.
The new Gamlingay school, which will be on the site previously occupied by the former Gamlingay First School, is due to open in September 2025 and will admit 60 pupils with SEMH.
In the Gamlingay area, there is a particular demand for provision for girls whose SEMH needs result in challenging behaviour. At present girls either travel out of county, attend an independent school or are educated at home through 1:1 tuition
. A primary feature of the new school in Gamlingay is that it will be co-educational.
Gamlingay, whilst at the far south of the county, is
relatively easily accessed by residents of Huntingdonshire, Cambridge, South Cambridgeshire and much of East Cambridgeshire.
Some Fenland residents would also find Gamlingay accessible, for example residents of Chatteris, which is 47 minutes away by car.
The population density of the south of the county is greater, meaning that more places are likely to be needed in the south than the north of the county in the long term.
The road network is more developed in the south of the county than in the north, making it more accessible with shorter journey times.
Councillor Bryony Goodliffe, chair of cambridgeshire’s children and young people’s committee, said: “I am delighted that the Government has given us the go-ahead to establish these two much-needed special schools.
“We are making significant progress in meeting the need for more special school places, but this announcement will enable us to create many more places. We now need to find sponsors who can develop innovative, first-rate educational institutions for children and young people in Cambridgeshire with the most complex needs.”
