A pioneering new education facility designed to support vulnerable children with social and emotional challenges has opened in a suburb of Norwich.
Built at Arden Grove Infant and Nursery School in Hellesdon, The Base is a specialist centre for infant school-aged children with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs.
Caring for children aged between four and seven, the facility has welcomed its first trio of pupils - although it will have the capacity to teach up to 16.
The purpose-built facility has two classrooms, a kitchen, a practical area and sensory rooms to allow it to provide cutting edge therapeutic approaches to education.
Its purpose is to provide children from troubled backgrounds a transition into mainstream school and its staff continue to support the children once they are in traditional settings.
It is one of four new purpose-built special resource bases (SRBs) funded as part of a £120m investment in special educational needs from Norfolk County Council and is being run by the Wensum Trust.
It comes following years of lobbying from staff at the trust, in particular Base lead Anne Oakley, who made it her personal mission to fill a need she identified through her time work supporting SEN children at Arden Grove.
She said: "Understanding and nurturing children's emotional and social development is the prerequisite to learning and happy, healthy life.
"I've seen such a need for facilities like this over the years and the support we can give just much such a difference.
"We want to create a web of support around the children and feel like they belong."
Daniel Thrower, chief executive of the Wensum Trust, said: "Many infant-aged children will have difficulty following school expectations and managing their emotions and behaviour and we know disengaged children go onto a different pathway.
"Our ethos is to ensure our schools are happy, healthy environments by building trust and developing strong, positive relationships with all our children and families.
"This is a ground-breaking way to help keep our children safe, give them confidence and provide them with the best all-round education to succeed."
In 2018, the Trust had previously applied to form a free school specifically for children that had suffered trauma in early life, but could not secure funding for this plan.
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