WITH reference to the Review Opinion article regarding special educational needs prompted by a letter from Mrs Wendy Wilding, your article was spot on.

Most of our local mainstream schools fully support Dean Hall school and wish to see it flourish. They know only too well that the children in special schools will never be able to get the same sort of education in mainstream as they get in a special school environment, despite the best efforts of their staff with the limited resources they can offer.

All schools have special needs teachers and do a wonderful job sometimes under difficult circumstances, but there are special needs children and there are special needs children. Some will be able to cope with a certain amount of help in a mainstream and others will simply fall by the wayside.

These children need constant attention in class and at break times. This is what they get at Dean Hall. Mainstream schools can only offer the amount of time that the child has been allocated in their statement depending on their individual difficulties. Many of these children are extremely vulnerable and anxious and, as you said, they appreciate the guidance and kindness beyond the call of duty that many experience in a special school.

Mainstream schools are already under a lot of pressure and they simply have not got the staffing levels, facilities or resources to cope adequately with these children.

I recently took my youngest daughter to visit her prospective new comprehensive school. Whilst we were very impressed with facilities offered and came away with a very good impression of the school, special needs provision was mentioned in the tour but I can honestly say that if my oldest daughter, who now attends Dean Hall, had to be educated there, I know I would have a lot of problems on my hands, the biggest one being that she would be overwhelmed by the sheer size of the school, and the number of pupils in it.

I know that she would not be able to navigate around the different classrooms let alone be able to stand up for herself, and that is before she did any work. She is currently in a class of eight, small and safe. She feels secure.

I dread to think what would happen to her if Dean Hall was closed and she was forced by our uncaring LEA officers and councillors to attend a comprehensive school with anything up to 900 pupils.

Like most parents of children in special schools, Wendy Wilding and I have seen the tremendous good work that is going on in these schools and have seen the differences in our children. People sometimes do not understand the pressures and struggles that having a child with learning difficulties and, often, associated health problems brings.

Wendy and I attend meetings with parents from the other threatened special schools in Stroud and Tewkesbury on a regular basis and will continue to fight to keep our special schools open for all the children that will never make it in any way, shape or form in a mainstream, but will have a fighting chance in the correct environment for their needs, a special school. – Mrs Gill Dovey, parent governor, Dean Hall Special School, member Gloucestershire Special Needs Protection League, Puzzle Close, Bream.