A boarding school for youngsters with emotional and behavioural difficulties that failed to find a home in Witherslack after meeting fierce opposition is opening on a new site next week with the creation of up to 60 jobs.

Classes begin at The Wings School on Monday after £500,000 of renovation work to the once derelict Bela River prison site, near Milnthorpe.

The school chose the Whassett riverside location immediately after Lake District National Park planners rejected its bid to convert The Old Vicarage Restaurant, at Witherslack, in November. Around 35 placard-waving villagers had surrounded the planning meeting to make plain their fears that Witherslack's 33-pupil primary would close if the special school opened nearby as parents concerned about exposing their children to troubled teenagers pulled them out of the school.

But planning was not an issue with the new site since it had been the home of Riverside School which closed three years ago a fact that gave Wings a head start as it simply restored existing classrooms.

So far ten students have been placed at the school for 11 to 16 year olds by local education authorities from up and down the country. Eventually Wings hopes to enrol 38 students who are expected to be mainly girls.

A total of 30 teaching and support staff have been hired so far to run the school and offer expert tutoring. If the school hits its enrolment targets it expects to hire another 30 people including staff from the surrounding area.

Wings will be led by award-winning head teacher Pam Redican and another ex-head Mark Bryson, both formerly of Underley Garden School, at Kirkby Lonsdale, a centre catering for challenging children. During Mrs Redican's time there she earned a prestigious Plato award for school leadership in the North West round of the Teaching Awards 2000.

"The school's called Wings because we believe our children can fly and it's that kind of ethos," she said. "The potential that these youngsters have hasn't yet been realised for different reasons. We are here to be able to help them achieve that."

Mr Bryson added: "These children are not delinquents. They just for different reasons haven't been able to fit into mainstream schools. They are children with learning difficulties like Attention Deficit Disorder and school phobics."

To meet their needs, classes will have no more than seven children to one teacher and one class assistant. Studies however, will still follow the national curriculum with pupils working towards GCSEs and National Vocational Qualifications. There will be school uniforms too comprising a smart blue jumper and blazer bearing the school motto We believe you can fly'.

Meanwhile, out of hours Mrs Redican expects pupils to take part in community life - she said some students were already eager to sign up with the local cadets.

She also believes the school could increasingly become a facility for the wider community. What she called "medium term" plans are in the pipeline to create a sports hall and a student is already designing a small skatepark to be developed on top of one of the three remaining prison huts which are in line for demolition.

Building work has been taking place since November, led by Ulverston builders Elliot and Edwards, to restore classrooms and other buildings have been or are in the process of being transformed into student accommodation while a house at the school's entrance is to become the head teacher's home.

"It's almost like a small village," said Mrs Redican.

l News of the fledgling school put paid to rumours that the former prison camp which once housed German and Italian POWs was destined to become a centre for asylum seekers. As reported in The Westmorland Gazette last week, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins had fielded a parliamentary question about the matter prompted by concerns from South Lakeland residents.

April 25, 2003 11:00