GLENWOOD School is not fit for purpose, say staff. The special needs school in Rushbottom Lane, Benfleet, has been on the same site for 40 years.

The building was never intended to be a school. It is cramped, the classrooms are too small and pupils struggle to pass through narrow corridors.

Essex County Council’s intervention, to press on with a £23million relocation, has been met with a sense of relief by staff at the school, which caters for youngsters aged three to 19 with special educational needs.

The school is set to move up the road to the Deanes School in Daws Heath Road as part of a plan funded by Essex County Council.

Carole Baker, deputy head, was delighted with the plan because she says the school building, although extended over the years, was not up to standard.

She said: “It was built in the late 1960s as a junior training centre, before learners with this degree of needs were deemed able to be educated.

“There was an Education Act in 1970 that decreed all children were capable of learning. So this building suddenly became a school for children with special needs.

“It has never been fit for purpose. We have added on classrooms, demountables and have got to the point where we can’t add any more.

“The corridors are too narrow. It was designed for a very small number of learners. Classrooms are too small and you haven’t got the central resources area you need.”

As part of the million-pound relocation, Glenwood will get a new building within the Deanes School site as well as improved facilities, including a new sports hall and an all-weather outdoor sports pitch.

The project was axed last year after the Government scrapped the £55billion Building Schools for the Future scheme.

But the county council worked to secure cash for the plans and now building work will begin in 2012.

Judith Salter, head of the Glenwood School, said the new school would be able to cater for more students.

She said: “Glenwood’s need is huge. We are very full, and lack a lot of facilities. We haven’t got enough places for the young people that need to come to us. The new school will be able to cater for 150 students –50 more than at the moment. We have people on the waiting list. It has been like that for the last few years.”

She says the new school would provide more opportunities for their pupils. She said: “It will make a big difference for everybody. We will be able to work and learn in an environment that is designed for the young people. Staff are brilliant at compensating and finding ways around not having facilities, but we will be able to be more creative when we have a purpose-built space.

“We will have a proper therapy site for people to get together. It should be much easier for parents to get together and come into school.

“We will have specialist subject-related teaching areas that we don’t have at the moment. There will be more opportunities and we will be able to be more flexible about catering for individual needs.

“It will be built to meet the needs of the young people who come to the school whereas at the moment we are doing very well in a building that hinders you instead of helps you.”

The building is expected to be finished for the school year starting in September 2015.