To: Swindon Borough Council

We, the undersigned, call on Swindon Borough Council to urgently explore and approve an expansion of The Chalet School into secondary provision.

Swindon is currently facing a severe SEND capacity crisis. Our secondary special schools are critically oversubscribed, but more importantly, they do not cater specifically to the needs of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children who present a complex combination of primary Communication and Interaction needs, high sensory processing issues, and learning difficulties. This leaves profoundly autistic children who require an intensive, high-dependency environment in a state of educational limbo.

This expansion is required as a matter of utmost urgency. We need this provision in place for the September 2027 cohort. To ensure our children do not miss out on vital education, families are fully supportive of and open to utilising a temporary placement or modular solution while a permanent facility is finalised.

Currently, the secondary options available for "Chalet kids" are fundamentally mismatched to their primary profiles:

• Crowdys Hill caters to a wide spectrum of complex cognitive and learning needs.
• Uplands School focuses primarily on Severe Learning Difficulties (SLD), Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), and physical disabilities.
• Churchward School, while specialising in ASD, is tailored to a significantly more high-functioning profile. Its academic and social environment is designed for students working towards GCSEs, A-Levels, and independent community transitions, meaning it cannot accommodate the Chalet profile.

None of these settings can replicate the intensive, high-dependency "Total Communication" and sensory-regulated environment that our profoundly autistic children require to cope with their severe sensory processing issues, manage their learning difficulties, stay safe, and remain regulated and ready to learn.

As a community of parents, we have proactively looked for solutions and identified the Chalet/Liden site as a logical, cost-effective starting point due to its available physical land. If the Local Authority deems this specific site impossible, we ask for clear reasoning as to why it cannot be used.

Regardless, we remain fully open to any feasible alternative that the council can deliver. This includes building on alternative land, acquiring empty or disused school buildings, or executing creative restructuring. For instance, the Council could consolidate under-subscribed infant and junior schools onto a single site, handing over the vacated school location to establish The Chalet School’s secondary wing. We welcome any solution that safely delivers this critical provision.

We know via the Council's transparency documents and public data that there is a dedicated capital borrowing allocation of over £12 million specifically earmarked to establish a new specialist SEND secondary or all-through school provision. Logically, dedicating this specific fund to establish a secondary wing or dedicated setting tailored to The Chalet School's profile is the most sensible, targeted use of these public resources. It directly addresses the most critical gap in Swindon's current special school network and prevents the financially unsustainable alternative of high-cost out-of-borough placements.

Therefore, we urge Swindon Borough Council to fulfil its statutory "Sufficiency Duty" by funding a secondary wing for The Chalet School. This is a common-sense, flexible, and deeply urgent solution that provides a permanent home for our most vulnerable learners and preserves the integrity of Swindon’s entire SEND network.