Westfield Special School launches appeal for hydrotherapy and physio centre (From Hereford Times)

Westfield Special School launches appeal for hydrotherapy and physio centre

7:00am Monday 14th November 2011 in Education By Bill Tanner

IT’S been 10 years since Leominster got started on raising £250,000 for a new pool – now the town is being asked to do it all over again.

The pool that amazing effort helped build back then is to stage the first big fund-raising splash for a hydrotherapy and physio centre at Westfield Special School.

Westfield floats its Bubble appeal for takeoff this week having tested the water with a series of summer fundraisers that have already put more than £3,000 in the bank.

Three days of events for Bubble start from tomorrow (Friday) staged at Leominster’s two leisure centres with the full support of HALO Leisure.

At the centre on the weekend is a swim-athon in the very pool the town raised £250,000 to build.

Westfield head Nicki Gilbert said the hydrotherapy and physio centre proposed for what is now a classroom would be built as an asset to be shared by the town and surrounding areas.

Westfield is a special school that takes pupils from age six to the sixth form, some of them profoundly disabled and all with significant learning needs.

The school also serves as a kind of community/ youth centre for former pupils and has built up strong outreach links with the mainstream schools around.

Right now, the Westfield pupils have received hydrotherapy in Hereford at Trinity and Barrs Court schools.

On a practical basis, bussing those pupils to Hereford and back has long been a big exercise for such a comparatively small, highly specialised operation like Westfield.

The bus journey itself can often undo whatever good a hydrotherapy session has done.

The Bubble appeal will benefit not only the school but its role in the community.

Once built, the centre would be a community facility for water based therapy. Initial estimates have Bubble aiming at between £240,000- £250,000 raised by 2013.

“Westfield is a remarkable place and, with the leisure pool appeal, Leominster has shown it can do the remarkable.

“Bubble is the challenge that brings both together – and the challenge is on,” said June French, Westfield chair of governors.