AN INDEPENDENT school in Powys for pupils with special needs is to expand into Shrewsbury.

Bettws Lifehouse has completed the letting of the Kingsland Grange and Old Roman Road school site as part of its expansion plans.

The school first opened in Newtown in 2007, as a school for pupils aged between five and 19 with additional educational needs.

It currently operates over two sites in Mid-Wales, with the lower school based in Bettws Cedewain and the upper school in Welshpool.

The school’s new site in Shrewsbury hopes to welcome its first pupils for the autumn term.

Proprietor and managing director Kay Jones said: "We first visited the site at Kingsland Grange in Shrewsbury in August, 2021.

“It was an impressive property, with a fantastic range of buildings and most unusually, some wonderful parkland and playing fields.

“We instantly knew this was a chance in a lifetime as it fitted our requirements so perfectly.

"As a school for children with additional needs, finding the right setting is crucial. The ambience and the ‘feel’ of a site really impacts on the pupils. A sense of calm and tranquillity has such a positive impact on outcomes.

"One only has to set foot through the gates at Kingsland Grange to have that wonderful sense of being wrapped in a caring community.

"Our plans hope to have our first pupils enrolled in the autumn term and, in that first year, we will start to regenerate the grounds to their former beauty and develop the woodland into a wonderful adventure learning area.

"We are very much looking forward to settling into the Shrewsbury community and making use of all the amenities around us."

The site had been operated by Shrewsbury High Preparatory School before the school united its junior and senior departments into one site, moving to the school’s town centre site in September 2021.

The site features five principal buildings which include room for academic space, art, design and technology studios, sports hall, offices, stores and a dining room.

The property also has an array of outdoor facilities, such as external parking and sports fields.