An online petition is gathering pace to fight the proposed closure of the Special Resource Base at Deri View Primary School – one of only three in the county.

Parents and staff met at the school last Wednesday to discuss Monmouthshire County Council’s proposal.

Sam Patamia, whose ten-year-old daughter Emilia attends the unit, says she was never consulted directly about the proposals and feels that objections are being ignored by the council, which is intent on the unit’s closure next April purely as a cost-cutting exercise.

The petition, launched by another parent, has already attracted nearly 800 signatures.

One signatory says, “It angers me that precious resources to our most vulnerable members of society are axed. Please allow these young children to be educated in familiar surroundings where they feel secure and happy…”

Another says, “I have worked in different special schools for my whole career. They are so important. These children sometimes cannot cope with change and struggle with transitioning to new places. Instead of closing them down these schools should be supporting them and opening new improved facilities for these beautiful children.”

Sam told the Chronicle, “The Deri View centre is a fantastic resource, with expertly skilled staff and a sensory room and sensory garden. More importantly it is the only local provision for children with additional learning needs.

“If it closes they will have to travel up to 30 miles a day to Monmouth or even further to out of county special schools and some wouldn’t be able to cope.”

She added, “I’m sure there are many parents locally that will need the Deri View unit as their children grow to school age.”

Sam says she only found out about last week’s public consultation meeting by word of mouth.

“The details were buried on the MCC website. You needed to use specific words to search for the information.

“There are going to be further meetings which other parents may wish to attend and we want to spread the word.”

MCC’s cabinet agreed in September to start consulting on the proposal to close the unit, which caters for pupils aged four to 11 with moderate learning difficulties and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The consultation runs until November 27.

Sam’s daughter is in her last year at Deri View. She has severe learning difficulties due to a chromosome abnormality, which mean she is unable to read or write and her speech development is delayed.

She is due to move to a comprehensive school out of county next September as there are none suitable in Monmouthshire but the family say they will have to fight for a place.

“If the Deri View unit is closed in April, MCC is suggesting moving Emilia and another child to Overmonnow in Monmouth. I have told them that it is totally unacceptable to move her there for just one term and then for her to move again to ‘big school’ in September. She’ll find the disruption really upsetting and this simply isn’t going to happen. I’ll keep her at home next term.

“Aside from the position we find ourselves in, the Deri View unit is a valued asset for the county.”

The council’s consultation documents, however, describe the SNRB as ‘an underused resource’ and say its strategic impact has been minimal.

Deri View Primary, which opened in 2005, is the only school in Monmouthshire with more than 32 per cent of pupils entitled to free school meals.

The main school is equipped to take 410 pupils but it currently only has 256 on the roll. The nursery has the capacity for 60 places in the morning and afternoon sessions but currently has 27 in the morning and 29 in the afternoon. The SNRB, which admits pupils in the Foundation Phase and Key Stage Two with complex special educational needs, has capacity for 24 children but currently has seven.

The council says that, with the closure of the unit, five of the seven pupils will be supported in the mainstream school.

It argues that the unit from the outset was never intended as a long-term placement for children – it was meant to work with children with learning difficulties and successfully return them to their mainstream school by helping them develop the academic, social and emotional skills to allow independent learning and positive social and emotional functions.

But to date no children placed there by the local authority had been returned to their ‘substantive placement’ - and, while the unit was full from 2007 until July 2011, it has been in decline ever since.

Sam Patamia, however, says parents and staff dispute MCC’s figures on both present attendance and future intake.

She believes that the reason the unit is undersubscribed is because many parents are not aware of its existence.

“Personally I don’t think MCC has been promoting the unit because it wants to run it down and close it,” she said.

She added that three of the unit’s seven children had already been returned to mainstream education and were not coping.

The council’s consultation document says that, without the unit, Deri View Primary could focus its resources on the development of Early Years intervention within the community, to close the gap in attainment between pupils in an area of high deprivation.

It argues that the original intention of the unit was to provide interim support for pupils with special educational needs from across the county but this had not materialised and instead it had supported a small number of children from the host school alone.

It was therefore not fulfilling its intended purpose or offering the school or local authority value for money.

•No-one from MCC was available to comment as the Chronicle went to Press.