We have the same problem with Limpit's school. The building is over 100yrs old, has 3 main floors and 3 mezzanines. There are staircases to the main floors at either end of the building with one additional stair leading to the second main floor and all 3 mezzanines in the centre of the long side. Each floor has 8 classrooms opening onto a central hall with offices, staff rooms, storerooms and cloakrooms on the mezzanine levels. There is presently no reception area so visitors have to buzz in. The buzzers are situated about 4.6ft up the wall so the children don't play with them.

The main outside doors to the staircases are double doors with 6-8 steps leading up to them. There are 3 smaller doors in the front of the building. One is for the nursery only and is restricted. A wheelchair can fit through the other doors in the front and use the bottom classrooms and hall, but all other rooms are reached by stairs. There are no disabled toilet facilities - indeed, there is only one 'adult' toilet on the 2 mezzanines, with all children's facilities on the ground floor. However, we do have braille markings on many of the doors as the school presently has a partially sighted student. There is a special 'tactile' room where the differently abled children are given alternative lessons and attention. When a child with special needs is accepted into the school, every effort is made to adapt the facilities to their needs - we never say 'you can't bring your disabled child, we don't have a ramp'.

We've just been given funding and the go-ahead to refurbish the front door this summer, so soon we'll have a disabled toilet, a reception area that wheelchair users (and short people) can use, refurbished children's toilets and a downstairs office. The gates are in full view of the reception so can be opened automatically from there if needed. There are ways to become DDA compliant (ADA if you prefer), but as Bobert says, it can be pretty costly. Just 'sticking a ramp in' doesn't cover half of it... In our case it's costing the local council/government about £500,000. That's about £200,000 more than it would if we weren't a listed building - any new structure has to be in keeping with the character of the rest of the building.

We're not even allowed to paint our Victorian railings any shade but black now... they used to be such a pretty sky blue!

A little aside here, the Headteacher, at a recent governors meeting reported that the 'school has been greatly enhanced by the addition of an electric fence'.

We THINK she meant the inner 20ft security fencing with electronic gates...

LTS