Kennet Valley Primary School’s SEMH unit will reopen tomorrow (Wednesday) after West Berkshire Council closed it because of staffing problems.
The Kennet Valley Resource Base opened in September 2024 after about £3m was spent on a purpose-built facility. In 18 months it has seen a 400 per cent staff turnover: it currently has eight staff but 38 have left. The school’s governing body is responsible for hiring.
Ten of the 12 pupils will return to the school in Carters Rise, Calcot, and the council has brought in specialist help for an undetermined period.
West Berkshire’s executive director of children’s services, Annmarie Dodds, closed the unit on February 12 because of persistent staffing shortages, recruitment challenges and concerns over how the curriculum was being planned and how the mix of children in the unit were being educated. Among the issues contributing to the closure were pupils setting off fire alarms.
The unit is under daily scrutiny, staff are receiving additional training, and the council is recruiting a specialist unit head to be funded from the council budget.
“The reason we are doing this is that we need certainty for these children,” said Ms Dodds.
“We also need to understand what happened here so we can mitigate that going forward, and provide support for those staff. The turnover of staff indicates the level of difficulty here.
“The children in these units are often traumatised and have complex needs.”
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
