A NEW centre for children with special educational needs has been opened in memory of a dedicated teacher who died earlier this year.
The John Boyle Inclusion Centre was opened on Wednesday last week by Mr Boyle’s son, also called John, and council dignitaries.
The centre has been built in partnership with Alperton Community School at the Ealing Road site.
John Boyle, a teacher at the school, died on January 1, aged 61, of lung cancer.
He was described by colleagues as ‘a passionate champion of inclusion and in his outstanding teaching career here and elsewhere he stood up for the disadvantaged and the vulnerable’.
The centre is for children with special educational needs and caters for up to 20 students with moderate learning difficulties to transfer to Alperton Community School for further study.
Brent Council part-funded the £550,000 centre, which is working with Woodfield Special School as eight former pupils are now at the centre studying for their GCSEs.
Alperton’s headteacher Maggie Raffee said: “We’ve been working with Woodfield for a long time to ensure that this transition is successful for everyone. The students and their parents are delighted that they can integrate into a mainstream school and have the opportunity to take a wide range of GCSE options.
“The centre is named after our dear colleague John Boyle who was an outstanding advocate of inclusion. John would have enjoyed working with our new students and we will continue to ensure that everyone who uses this centre achieves as much as they can in the way John would have expected.”
