Plans to provide more high quality primary school places in New Malden and Surbiton approved by Kingston Council
Kingston Council has approved plans to transform Burlington Junior School in New Malden, improving the facilities for pupils and increasing capacity from 4 to 5 form entry by 2026.
Plans for a new primary school funded by the Department for Education (DfE) on the site of the King Charles Centre in Surbiton, to open in September 2023, have also been approved.
The council is committed to ensuring children and young people across the borough have access to the highest quality educational experience. Burlington Junior School school is currently accommodated in an original Victorian building and a second structure built in the 1960s. Subsidence was identified in this building in 2017, and although it was then made safe, it was only intended as a short term fix.
The plans will see the outdated 1960s building demolished and a new three-storey teaching block constructed on the existing car park, which will accommodate 600 pupils and 55 staff. It will include 15 classrooms, a dining hall, staff areas, a sports hall and changing rooms, along with a rooftop habitat and outdoor teaching area.
There will also be a new junior playground, and two brand new Multi Use Games Areas (MUGA). The wider community will also benefit from the transformation, with access to the junior MUGA and the sports hall outside school hours.
Councillor Diane White, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services including Education said:
“This is excellent news for our children and underlines our commitment to providing the highest quality education across our borough.
“The plans to transform Burlington Junior School will significantly enhance the teaching and learning environment of this highly popular and successful community school and provide new facilities which will be of lasting benefit for many generations of children to come.”
Burlington Junior School is a Kingston Council-maintained community school, currently serving up to 480 children aged 7-11. The new facilities will provide additional permanent capacity, to enable the school to expand from four to five forms of entry when additional high quality primary school places will be needed in the New Malden area. Three housing developments in the area as well as the Cambridge Road Estate regeneration will increase demand for school places. By providing the extra capacity now, the school need only experience one building scheme.
The council’s Planning Committee (9 February 2022) also approved plans for a new primary school funded by the Department for Education (DfE) to be built on the site of the King Charles Centre in Surbiton. The school, to be known as Surbiton Primary Academy, will open in September 2023 and will be run by the Omnia Trust which runs the Ofsted-rated ‘outstanding’ Twickenham Primary Academy in Richmond.
This follows a council decision to sell the site to the DfE in 2019 so that this much-needed new primary school could be provided, giving certainty to families in Surbiton and Tolworth that there would be sufficient places available for their children for the foreseeable future.