A PROFESSIONAL development library and resource centre for teachers with special needs pupils has been opened at Five Acre Wood School, Boughton Lane, Maidstone.

It has been financed through Five Acre Wood's beacon school funding and will be available to staff from the 17 schools in the local learning group which covers the south of Maidstone.

The majority of the schools in the group have a high percentage of pupils with special needs: Five Acre Wood itself is a special school for children with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties.

As well as books in the library, the resource centre contains aids such as soft toys, tapes, games to improve hand/eye co-ordination and speech and language assessment packs.

So far the library and resource centre has cost about £12,000 but the plan is to continually up-date the facilities.

At the opening head teachers and special educational needs co-ordinators were told to let Five Acre Wood School know if they wanted any particular book or resource added.

All the schools in the group have been given a database of all the books and resources presently available and these will be up-dated as the library and resource centre grows.

Jill Lawson, deputy head teacher at Five Acre Wood School, said: "It will help keep them up to-date on the current thinking on particular issues such as inclusiveness, speech and language teaching and behaviour management."