A PIONEERING school has included a wheelchair-friendly minibus in the extra services it provides for disabled students.

More than £3m has been spent improving facilities at King James I Community College, Bishop Auckland, so that students with physical disabilities can sit side-by-side in the classroom with able-bodied youngsters.

The money paid for the provision of single-storey classrooms with wider corridors, a lavatory block for the disabled and physiotherapy rooms. The original school building was also adapted to accommodate wheelchair users.

Now every development at the school, including the timetable and the curriculum, provision of sporting facilties and general access to buildings, is shaped around the requirements of disabled students.

The adapted minibus, which arrived this term, will ensure that up to four wheelchair-bound pupils at a time can join their classmates on field trips and theatre and sporting outings, without the need to hire special transport.

Mike Howard, school transport coordinator and head of boys' PE, said: "We are a socially inclusive school, so this was the next step.

"We saw that there was a need and the money was made available. Now we are looking for sponsors to help us with the cost."