SCHOOL bosses want to turn a derelict building at a special needs school into a community café for students to develop their real-life work experience.

Sandside Lodge, a school for children and teenagers with special needs in Ulverston, is developing plans to offer their students a community café where they can put in practice their work skills.

The plans are being developed with an architect to ensure the café is accessible for students so that they can apply for planning permission soon.

"We are pretty much there, trying to finish a few things," said headteacher Helen Grice.

"In the kitchen we have got to make sure that it has the right equipment so that our students will be able to access it with their different special needs."

The cafe will be 'vital' as it will give their students a real-life work placement, which can be a challenge to find in some environments, she said.

"It will develop their communication, money skills and interactions that wouldn't be possible without something like that and trying to find that opportunity in the community has been tricky to us, particularly during Covid," she added.

The school is currently raising funds for the project, which is estimated to cost £250,000, and plans to only develop it after securing all the money.

The headteacher said: "The lodge is located at the end of the car park, with a lot of work to be done to it. It is a beautiful building, and we want to make it part of our school community. 

"To be able to offer on our grounds for the students to be involved in the whole process is really exciting and something that will support a lot of our students as they develop things for their own futures and then leave us with a skill set that may take them into another vocational opportunity."