THE head of a company opening a new school in Perthshire tomorrow for youngsters with additional support needs has admitted her staff will have their work cut out rebuilding trust and helping them to re-engage.
Anne Gibson, chief executive of Bathgate-based Moore House Care and Education, was speaking as final preparations were under way for Butterstone House School, near Dunkeld, to welcome 10 pupils to the establishment.
Governors closed the former establishment – the New School, Butterstone – suddenly in November, giving parents just four days’ notice. It had catered for up to two dozen ASN pupils on a daily and boarding basis.
Parents reported that former pupils had become disengaged and withdrawn over the past six months and that an attempt to set up a mothballed primary school at Forteviot, near Perth, failed, leaving them in limbo.
However, Gibson told the Sunday National she was doing all she could to build confidence in Butterstone House School: “When we’ve been having conversations with colleagues in Perth and Kinross, with the educational psychologists and transitional team and we’ve sat down together to look at the individual needs of each young person, and obviously taken account of how difficult it might be for some of them to re-engage.
“Some of the teachers have continued to engage with some of the youngsters over the last few months, so it’s really about building those relationships again and easing them back into school at their own pace.
“We are very mindful that for some of them it is going to be more difficult to re-engage, but we’ve put steps in place.
“There’ll be some home visiting, a bit of home teaching, gradually building up their confidence again to get them back into the classroom.
“We know that relationships mean everything and the pupils had already established really positive ones with the staff. That’s why we’ve employed most of them back with some additional new management.
“Tracey Ford-McNicol will be coming in from Fife College as the new head of the school. She has a lot of experience with working with children with additional support needs and will help with the transition back.”
She said 10 pupils would be starting at the school tomorrow and negotiations were under way with Angus and Dundee city councils over another two, who the school hoped would be attending in the coming weeks.
Although Butterstone House has been registered for day pupils, Gibson hopes to be able to offer residential provision in the future.
“We’re actually registered for up to 30 young people, so I think once word gets out that the school is up and running, we will get more referrals from other local authorities,” she said.
“The other part of this is to try and fix up residential provision as well, so we can accommodate young people for whom parents and the local authorities feel would benefit from going to Butterstone House.
“There are two homes on the site and we recognise that both need a bit of refurbishment work. It’s not major but we will aim to get these registered with the Care Inspectorate as soon as possible, but we anticipate about six months or so.”
Susan Briggs, whose 15-year-old son Jack had attended the previous school at Butterstone, said she was relieved and delighted that the new facility was opening.
“It’s been a long six months, not just with his education being on hold, but it’s like the whole family life has been on hold, sitting about waiting and hoping that things are going to happen,” she said.
She said Jack had been doing well until the establishment closed and was due to sit his National 5s, but because of the closure he would now have to wait until next year.
“We got a little one-to-one tuition which Jack really engaged with and enjoyed, but apart from that he’s just been at home spending time playing computer games in his room.
“I’ve been doing my best to take him out and about to get him socialising a little, but he has been very isolated and reclusive because of what’s happened.
“He’s a teenager so he’d never admit he was looking forward to going back to school, but he is.
“He’s been more talkative, chatty and more animated. It’s going to give him a purpose again because he’s been bored and lonely.”
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