Key partners have marked the completion of a £6 million extension at Sandgate School in Kendal, celebrating a major upgrade to spaces, facilities and equipment for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Sandgate, which serves pupils aged three to nineteen, has expanded its satellite campus at The Queen Katherine School to include Key Stage 3. This brings all secondary-age pupils together on a single site and raises the school's overall capacity.

Funded by Westmorland and Furness Council, the project delivers a new entrance and reception, several meeting rooms and planning offices, four additional classrooms with separate breakout areas for small-group teaching, a sports hall with changing rooms, extra storage and further amenities within a contemporary extension.

A state-of-the-art sensory room forms part of the build, featuring interactive wall and floor projectors, ceiling-mounted tracking hoists to move students comfortably, and a range of calming features and equipment that create another dedicated regulation space.

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Enhancing the sports offer, a climbing wall has been designed and installed in the hall by local specialists, funded by the Friends and Family of Sandgate School. Qualified staff are now running sessions with small groups on site, removing the need to travel to unfamiliar external venues.

The school played a central role in planning and scoping the extension, shaping elements such as acoustic treatment and lighting levels throughout to help prevent sensory overload in busy areas.

An event to celebrate the project brought together stakeholders including former Cabinet Member for Education, Inclusion and Skills, Sue Sanderson, who was thanked for her sustained work to improve local SEND provision. Guests toured the new spaces and were served refreshments by pupils from the catering kitchen.

Headteacher Dan Hinton said: "This building is now a calm, fit for purpose and positive environment to learn and teach in, ensuring the use of all spaces is maximised to get the most out of them for the benefit of our young people and staff.

"Doorways are now big enough to allow for the movement of beds and specialist equipment around the school and there are multiple cupboards along the edges of our wide corridors to house wheelchairs and other essential aids.

"We now have enough accessible toilets and specialist equipment such as built in, motorised ceiling hoists, which run on tracks to move students between spaces with far more dignity (and a lot more fun!) than our previous manual hoists, which involved two people and a lot of manhandling. This could be distressing to some pupils and affect the health and physical wellbeing of staff.

"We've been able to increase our capacity by an extra 50 pupils, but due to the small group teaching rooms, which we didn't have before, we are able to do focus work with smaller groups to aid learning.

"We have a permanent school nurse on site with a dedicated treatment and consultation room. The nurse can be alerted by buzzers fitted throughout the school in an emergency."