A SPECIAL school that parents helped save from closure could be expanded.
Sunderland City Council education officials are proposing to increase the number of pupils at the city's Barbara Priestman School for disabled youngsters.
They are recommending that the school should widen its role and take in hospitialised pupils, secondary-aged children with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and youngsters unable to blend into mainstream education.
In 1998, the council drew up plans to turn the school into a mainstream secondary, which angered parents. They launched a campaign and took the fight to the Department for Education, which blocked the closure plan.
Headteacher Bill Hitchcock welcomed the proposals, contained in the council's blueprint for the development of the area's schools.
"It is great news for the people of Sunderland and the staff at the school are ready to face the new challenges being put before them," he said.
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