Education Minister Erica Stanford and Sara Cohen School principal Matthew Tofia check out the school's new wheelchair swing. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
A Dunedin specialist school has officially opened in its long-awaited new home, promising to also be a boon for the wider intellectually disabled community.
Te Whirika Sara Cohen Specialist School welcomed students, staff and guests to the new Riselaw Road site with song and speeches on Thursday morning.
The school included a hydro-therapy pool, an accessible and secure playground, a wheelchair swing, and a sensory room.
Sara Cohen School principal Matthew Tofia said it felt like their students and community now had a facility that was worthy of them after years of mahi.
"For a long time, we've had substandard facilities and I thank the ministry for recognising that and building us something beyond what our community and I could ever have thought," he said.
Te Whirika Sara Cohen Specialist School officially opened its doors on the new Riselaw Road site with song and speeches on Thursday morning. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
The playground would be open to the wider intellectually disabled community with verified families getting a swipe card to access the space and the toilet block.
"The playground has non-climbable fencing so our parents can come in, sit down, completely relax and have a coffee, and not worry about their child," he said.
"Their child's enjoying themselves in the playground. This is stuff our families can't even do at home and certainly not in other playgrounds."
The new hydrotherapy pool meant their physiotherapist and students could do a lot more in the water and it helped them with emotional regulation, he said.
Principal Matthew Tofia says they made the pitch to open up the playground to other families with children who have intellectual disabilities to grant providers. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
The Ministry of Education had announced that the school would also get three extra teaching spaces, expanding their roll from just over 70 students to closer to 100.
Tofia said their expressions of interest list exceeded what they could offer even with the new spaces.
Erica Stanford said the government had included specialist schools in the network planning budgets for the first time and there was $70 million announced in the last Budget for more classrooms and school rebuilds.
Education Minister Erica Stanford and Sara Cohen School principal Matthew Tofia in the new hydrotherapy pool area. Photo: RNZ / Tess Brunton
It was great for families to have more options about where to send their children, she said.
"It is really tough for principals and parents who want to be able to access specialist support, who can't," Stanford said.
"It's difficult for schools to be able to get the specialist support they need for those children to properly give them the services they need, and it can be disruptive in the classroom as well.
"So when we build schools like this, and when we build additional classrooms and satellite classrooms at schools, it gives parents that choice."
The government hoped to offer more funding for specialist schools next year as the sector has been ignored for decades and there was a "huge backlog", she said.
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