What’s new: Watermill Brindley, on Turnhurst Road in Packmoor, has celebrated its opening after welcoming pupils in September.
By the numbers: The £11.5 million development provides up to 70 new school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Why it matters: The new provision is designed to help meet growing demand for specialist education in Stoke-on-Trent and enable more children to access support closer to home.
This article is based on reporting from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), a BBC funded initiative set up to strengthen reporting on local democratic issues. The Staffordshire Signal has taken part in the scheme since September 2026, which means we're able to draw on a selection of LDRS stories alongside our own.
A new Stoke-on-Trent school has recently celebrated its opening. Watermill Brindley, on Turnhurst Road, in Packmoor, opened in September and provides up to 70 new school places which have been created as part of an £11.5 million project.
The project was funded through the Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s schools capital programme. It is an expansion of the existing Watermill School and has been built on the site of the former Middlehurst School which was closed in 2014 and demolished in 2022.
The school, which spans two floors, provides more learning opportunities for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The learning facility boasts a library with books suggested by pupils, a life skills room, a physical education gymnasium and a community room.
Parts of the school have acoustic panels which absorb sounds and dampen echoes, helping children who are sensitive to noise. At the celebration event, pupils had the chance to make impressions using natural materials such as leaves, pinecones and bark to create murals.
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Watermill School is part of Orchard Community Trust and has been an academy since 2019. It provides support for a wide range of pupils, aged three to 16. Pupils at the school all have learning difficulties of some kind.
Headteacher Jen Lomas said: “We are delighted to celebrate the opening of the new Watermill Brindley Special School site as part of Orchard Community Trust. The new facility will provide additional specialist school places, helping to meet growing demand across the city and ensuring more children and young people can access high-quality education and support close to home. We look forward to seeing the positive impact our new provision will have for pupils, families and the wider Stoke-on-Trent community.”
Work started on the site in April 2025, and Stoke-on-Trent-based Seddon Construction Ltd, who were the main contractors for the project, officially handed over the building in August 2026.
Councillor Sarah Jane Colclough, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “It’s a fantastic site, it creates 70 extra SEND places in the city, which is really welcome, keeping kids in the community making friends together. The quality of this building is excellent and it is part of the council’s capital projects which have helped to build this.
“It’s done to a really high standard and we’re really pleased that we can get the extra 70 places within 12 months.”
Written by Jonathan Sutton, Local Democracy Reporter.
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