Celebration planned at Lister Lane school (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Celebration planned at Lister Lane school

2:56pm Wednesday 20th January 2010 in

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Former pupils and staff are reuniting to mark the closure of a Bradford school, thought to be one of the first built in England for children with physical disabilities.

Lister Lane Special School, in Lister Lane, Bolton, shuts for good in April after 96 years, as part of a district-wide reorganisation of special education.

The school opened in 1914 at the start of the First World War and was put into immediate use as a billeting station for soldiers leaving for the trenches.

After the war it catered for children with minor physical disabilities. It was built as an ‘open air’ school, with glass-roofed and wall-less corridors, and windows that opened wide. Until the 1960s pupils took an afternoon nap.

Today, it has 62 two to 13-year-old wheelchair-using pupils with more severe physical disabilities.

It is one of ten special schools in Bradford that will close on April 18. Primary-age pupils will move to Chellow Heights, one of three special primaries opening in new buildings alongside mainstream schools after the Easter holidays.

Lister Lane pupils aged 11 and over will stay at the site, renamed Hazel Beck, until one of three new special secondaries is built alongside Beckfoot School, in Bingley, next year as part of Bradford Council’s Building Schools for the Future programme.

The school is holding a celebration buffet lunch on Thursday, March 4. Anyone with an association with the school past and present is welcome at the event, between 10am and 2pm.

The school’s co-ordinator for profound and multi-learning difficulties, Maria Saint, 59, is the longest-serving teacher, having spent 35 years there.

She said: “I will be very sorry to leave. It’s a way of life, not just a school and buildings. This is the end of an era.”

There will be photographs from the school’s history on show at the event.

Acting deputy head teacher Rachel Goulcher said: “We’re all going to be very emotional when it closes.

“It’s a very close and supportive school and we are very proud of our ethos and relationships with pupils, parents and each other. We feel very lucky to have worked here.”

To attend the event and book a lunch, call the school on (01274) 777107 by Friday, February 26.

e-mail:ben.barnett@telegraphandargus.co.uk