Silver Springs Primary Academy Resource Base Provision Consultation
Great Academies Education Trust and Silver Springs Primary Academy wish to consult on our plans to provide a 24 place Additional Resource Base for children in EYFS and KS1.
Reason for consultation: The opening of a Resource Base at Silver Springs Primary Academy, part of Great Academies Education Trust (GAET)
Consultation period: 25th April 2025 until midnight 16th May 2025
Silver Springs Primary Academy is running a public consultation on the proposed creation of a 24-place resource base for children in EYFS and KS1 with complex Communication and Interaction Needs.
To facilitate this the trustees are seeking to extend the academy lease to include the building currently housing the vacant former private day nursery (Quackers / Welcome Nursery) and the Family Hub adjacent to Silver Springs.
Summary of current academy provision
Silver Springs is a ‘Good’ school situated in Ridge Hill, an area of high deprivation in the Stalybridge North Ward of Tameside. The school is above average size, with more than double the average of children eligible for free school meals, above average SEND and below average stability. Academic outcomes for the school are above average and the school currently sits in the top 20% of schools nationally. The school is recognized locally as an inclusive school and receives frequent requests to take children with additional needs often on recommendation.
In addition to our fully integrated support for SEND and some with EHCPs within mainstream classes, the school currently operates three small specialist classes to accommodate the needs of our most complex children, this includes some children at SEN Support and those with EHCPs. (N.B. Not all children with EHCPs are taught in these specialist classes.)
One of our Oasis classes currently caters for children with complex Communication & Interaction needs and all have additional sensory and ASC needs. This proposal will build on our experience and expertise in working with these children over the last two years. The current Oasis class is compromised in its size and access to outdoor provision.
Impact of current provision
As a result of our Oasis Provision, we have been highly successful in meeting the needs of a range of children including those with Low Cognitive Ability and those with complex behavioural needs. Our exclusion rate has always been relatively low and is currently zero and has been since 2021. Our personalized interventions delivered by specialist staff, flexible groupings and the small class sizes enable us to adapt the curriculum to children’s individual needs and as a result the children make good progress towards their personal targets. This in turn means that we can quickly identify those children who will need long-term, high-level support and have been successful in securing EHCPs for these children, many of whom go on to special school places at transition points e.g. Y6 into Y7. Over the last three years however, securing place for children in primary special has been less successful, due to the current lack of special school place in the borough and therefore the academy can no longer rely on successful EHCPs leading to special school places and must fulfil the requirements of Section F of the EHCP ourselves.
As a result of our Oasis 1 provision, these children have made huge leaps in progress in terms of reducing the amount of time that they are in a highly dysregulated state and in terms of their progress towards their Speech and Language targets; something that has been recognised by external agencies e.g. SALT and Occupational Therapy. All these children are now accessing a personalized curriculum, in a calm setting that meets their needs. High adult ratios mean that we can better assess abilities and needs and ensure that the curriculum is appropriately ambitious. However, access to large physical indoor and outdoor play is severely restricted and something that we are currently providing via a weekly trip to a private session in a local play gym.
Parents’ responses to each of the Oasis Classes has been highly positive. Some parents who were previously seeking special school places are now happy that we can meet their child’s needs according to their EHCP. We often receive requests from parents of children in other mainstream schools for a place in Oasis, which we cannot provide currently, and we are receiving more and more consultations from the local authority for places for children with EHCPs whose parents want them to move to Silver Springs or as part of the EHCP process. We give full consideration to each one to determine if we can meet need without a detrimental impact on the quality of education for other children. This exponential increase is also replicated across the borough and nationally. We are seeking to support the local authority to create additional places in cost-effective SEND provision for the youngest children in the borough.
Detail of the proposal
The transfer from TMBC to Great Academies Education Trust (GAET) of the building adjacent to the school building which currently houses a TMBC Family Hub on the ground floor and a vacant (former independent children’s nursery) on the first floor.
The TMBC Family Hub will continue to occupy the ground floor of the building with no change to their provision.
Capital works for the refurbishment to make adjustments and improvements to the interior and exterior of the first floor of the building to make it a fit for purpose space for EYFS & KS1 children with additional needs.
The provision to include the age range Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. Provision to provide 24 funded places.
SEND provision to include the four prime areas of needs but to prioritise places for children with Communication (speech and language) and Interaction needs and Sensory and Physical Needs. Children may have SEND in more than one of these areas, sometimes referred to as complex needs. This in turn would determine the SEND provision we would offer from; speech, language and communication needs (SLCN), Moderate Learning Difficulty (MLD); Autistic Spectrum Conditions (ASC); Physical Disability (PD).
Tameside Council vision
The Council has an ambition that children within the borough should have a school place as close to home as possible which is able to meet their individual learning needs, and as many children as possible have a suitable place within a mainstream setting.
School place planning is a statutory duty of the local authority. The most recent school place planning report has informed the SEND delivery plan and outlined the need to develop additional specialist places to meet the needs of young people with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP’s).
Tameside currently maintains 3702 Education Health and Care Plans. The number of plans has been rising steadily since 2017 from a low baseline at the time of the SEND reforms of 2014. The number of EHCP’s in Tameside has almost doubled since 2020, when the local authority maintained 1981 plans.
The SEND Forward Plan identifies that the Council will begin to commission a new targeted mainstream provision model with a greater emphasis on highly supported SEN Unit or resource-based provision for a small number of children.
This will:
- Be related to the level and type of need in different neighbourhoods across the borough.
- Be small group focused provision attached to mainstream schools for both boys and girls.
- Be provided for primary and secondary pupils.
- Include a higher level of specialist staffing to meet need, linked with social care and health provision where appropriate.
- Prioritise the two most significant areas of need: Communication and Interaction (including autism) and SEMH.
In order to build SEN Unit capacity and create additional specialist places, the LA completed an Expression of Interest exercise in January 2025. Twenty-seven schools expressed interest in hosting SEN Units. Phase 1 of this work has focused on schools with immediate space for an SEN Unit, requiring minimal capital expenditure to adapt the existing building envelope to create an area into a high-quality SEND provision. 12 schools and academies have been selected for phase 1 creating 143 school places across all key stages from September 2025.
Timeline and process
The proposed timeframe for the project is summarised below:
- Public consultation: 25th April 2025 until midnight on the 16th May 2025
- Final approval by DfE expected: June 2025
- Adaptations to base to begin: July 2025
- Resource Base open to pupils: September 2025
Placements at the new resource base will be determined by the LA through the agreed EHCP
placement process and does not impact on the normal or in-year admissions for Silver Springs Primary Academy.
A copy of the proposed Admissions Policy for 2025/26:
To provide feedback please complete the Microsoft Form:
Or alternatively, feedback can be sent via email to: admin@silverspringsacademy.org.uk titled ‘2025 Silver Springs Resource Base consultation’
Silver Springs Primary Academy has previously consulted with parents and carers, to view responses from this consultation with responses directly from the school please see the below link.