And councillors agreed to postpone their plans to divide the children between two other special schools and consider other options. The proposal to close East Shore is part of an inclusion plan to counter-balance the trend of more parents of children with special needs wanting them in mainstream education. The News, Portsmouth , March 6, 2001. Parents fear a council scheme to reorganise special schools is based on empty promises . A lot of promises have been made but we still feel they have not given us proper assurances and there is nothing substantial.
People are genuinely distressed .
Nothing they said made us feel any better'. The scheme includes plans to open two centres of excellence that will both cater for children with severe learning difficulties and physical problems. It is also proposed to train teachers at mainstream schools to deal with pupils with learning difficulties. Mrs. Mills thinks this is unrealistic. Improvements will include the installation of lifts for children with mobility problems to sound field systems for pupils who are deaf.