Councillor Kay Cutts MBE, Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “This site has provided education for young people with disabilities for a very long time, but has never been quite big enough.

“This new school building will allow the school to continue to provide the excellent education it gives to young people in an environment where they can thrive.

“Arc Partnership is working really well for Nottinghamshire County Council – we have regular meetings and hear updates from all of its projects, so we’re delighted to be collaborating again for this new facility.”

Consolidating two existing sites in Newark and Balderton, the new school will include a hydrotherapy pool and will be capable of further expansion to 170 places in the future.

The new day services facility will cater for adults with disabilities and will be built on the site of the former Grove Leisure Centre, regenerating a disused area of land and transforming it into state-of-the-art education and care services.

Margot Tyers head teacher of Newark Orchard School said: “It means the absolute world to us to see this new building becoming a reality. We have fought for this for a very long time and it’s something that parents, staff and the children can’t wait to see completed.

“We want to continue to deliver quality education to the children in facilities that meet their needs, and the new school will be just that.”

We have appointed local contractors Willmott Dixon and G F Tomlinson to build the facilities, which are being funded by Nottinghamshire County Council and the Education and Skills Funding Agency.