At the beginning of the calendar year, Ambergate Sports College and Sandon School officially became one school after 13 years of working together. The merger was part of Lincolnshire County Council’s ‘Building Communities of Specialist Provision’ strategy, including significant investment to offer provision for all types of needs and disabilities.
This investment included a new hydropool for the Sandon Campus. Benefits include:
- Decreased disruption for pupils and time spent travelling to off-site facilities
- Pain relief
- Increase in range of joint motion
- Muscle strengthening
- Improved circulation
- A Hygiene Suite downstairs to allow for children with mobility issues to access ground floor facilities.
On Thursday 17th October, GANF were delighted to welcome former Olympic swimmer, Joe Roebuck, to officially open the new facility. Joe competed in the London 2012 Olympic Games and is a Commonwealth and European medallist.
Daley Barber-Allen, Headteacher at GANF, said: “We are enormously grateful to Lincolnshire County Council who have provided significant investment as part of their ‘Building Communities of Specialist Provision’ strategy which has enabled us to have our very own hydrotherapy facility onsite.
The difference this has made to our pupils and their experience of school is fantastic. It really is a joy to see our pupils benefiting from such a fantastic facility and it has helped us to enhance our therapeutic curriculum offer for pupils.”
Cllr Mrs Patricia Bradwell OBE, Executive Member for children’s services at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “Over the last few years, the council has invested around £100m in improving and expanding special schools across the county, meaning more pupils with special educational needs and disabilities can now attend a local school instead of having to travel large distances for their education.
This is the latest of the many success stories we’ve had to celebrate as a result of the project, and I’m sure these improvements will make a life-changing difference to the pupils.”
Joe Roebuck said: “Swimming was something that was huge in my life, it started as a life skill and then became a passion. Having ADHD itself, it became a massive outlet for me.
It is great to see the children have these opportunities and not travelling all the time to facilities, now having a pool on their doorstep. Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as I did and it looks like they are from the pictures.
Congratulations to everyone for putting all the work in to get the facility built and I hope you all enjoy it.”
