A MELKSHAM school is considering closing its specialist centre for children with autism because it feels it can no longer meet the pupils’ complex needs.

The Manor CofE Primary plans to close its Resource Base, which currently caters for 16 children, this summer, following a consultation with parents by the governing body of the academy.

The centre opened in 1995 and is one of 27 primary age Special Educational Need facilities in the county, with pupils referred and funded by Wiltshire Council.

It was designed for children to spend some of their time in the class as well as taking part in lessons with mainstream pupils. However, the current level of the autism experienced by pupils means the children in the Resource Base are now spending all their time there.

A consultation on the closure began in December; questionnaires were made available to the families of all 269 pupils at the school, a drop-in session was held and head teacher Kerry Haines had one-to-one meetings with parents.

Miss Haines said the feedback had been positive and of the 22 questionnaire returned 19 were in favour, two against and one undecided.

She said: “We are losing a valuable resource and I feel really saddened at the fact we have got to the point of having to close it.

“The majority of children we are getting through have often failed in a mainstream primary school and then are coming to us with extreme behaviours and we are a mainstream school, we are not a special school.

“The fact that we don’t have a Resource Base won’t ever stop us managing children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. We are still committed to working with children with special educational needs.”

The closure still needs to be approved by the Education Funding Agency and Department for Education and a decision is expected by April.

Some parents of children in the Resource Base have already started looking for new schools. Depending on their level of autism the pupils will either go to a mainstream school or be moved to another centre. The six members of staff who work in the Resource Base will remain at the school.

There are only two other Resource Bases in Wiltshire which specialise in autism, at Charter Primary in Chippenham and Woodford Valley CofE near Salisbury.

Larkrise School in Trow-bridge, St Nicholas School in Chippenham and Exeter House School in Salisbury also provide education for pupils who have severe learning difficulties.