ANGRY parents and children with special educational needs will converge on County Hall next week to protest at proposed changes to Worcestershire's special schools.

Campaigners will march from nearby Worcester Countryside Centre to the Spetchley Road offices on Monday to hand over petitions to the county council's cabinet.

"We want to show the council just how strongly not only we but the general public are against these proposals," said Mary Dhonau, from the Thornton House School Parent's Action Group.

"The threatened closures will have such a detrimental effect on the lives of all children and the plans should be scrapped immediately by the cabinet before a disastrous mistake is made."

The protest will set out at 10am and will meet delegates from the cabinet half-an-hour later at County Hall, where they will hand over the petition with almost 8,500 signatures.

Last week, Worcester MP Mike Foster added his name to thousands of others who raised concerns about the plans.

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff has also outlined fears in a letter to the county's director of education, Julien Kramer.

"I oppose the underlying assumption of this consultation - that mainstream education is always preferable to special education," said Mr Luff.

"The buzzword at present is 'inclusion'. So our overstretched and underfunded mainstream schools are expected to cope with an increasing number of children with varying but very demanding special needs.

"Worryingly, the county's consultation document actually provides integration targets that will effectively force us into much higher levels of mainstream education for pupils with special needs than would otherwise be the case.

"I believe it is time to challenge the whole politically correct notion of inclusion in education."

Worcestershire County Council welcomes all public responses during the consultation period.

"All views that are brought to us will be considered," said spokesman Lee Shrimpton. "We want as many comments as possible so they can be included in the formal document."

Campaigners have made a banner for the march - Hands Off our Special School and Nursery - with individual handprints from every child at Thornton House, in Wyld's Lane.

Anyone interested is welcome to join the protest, which leaves the Worcester Countryside Centre at 10am.

The public consultation on the future of special schools in Worcestershire finishes on Friday, April 30.

The county council will make a final decision in July.

Teachers' union supports the battle to save schools

A LEADING teachers' union has thrown its support behind campaigning county parents battling the closure of special schools.

In 2001, the Government said that county councils should introduce more pupils with special needs into mainstream education - and shut "superfluous" special schools.

However, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) last week called for the Government's "inclusion" policy to be redefined.

At the annual conference, held in Llandudno, NASUWT members said the traditional system of special education gives appropriate education delivered by experts.

"One child screaming, swearing, hitting others and running around is hard enough for a teacher to cope with. At what point does the job become undo-able when there are several in the class?" asked English teacher Amanda Haehner.

The NASUWT's deputy general secretary, Chris Keates, said special schools should be seen as a crucial area of mainstream education, not an alternative to it.