A new £11.5 million specialist school in Packmoor has celebrated its opening, providing up to 70 additional SEND school places in Stoke-on-Trent.
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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