Planning Application for new classroom block

We have submitted a planning application to build a four classroom block to accommodate the High School Leckhampton for the academic year 2021-22 before being re-purposed for use by Balcarras. We have been over our capacity for some time and have always just found a way to make it work but we have been looking for extra accommodation to solve this problem and this building will provide us with this.

The Building will have four large classrooms, four offices and toilets. It will also have its own food servery. The building will provide much needed extra space for the school in the long term. We should make it clear that the building (apart from in its first year) is not being built to provide for an increase in numbers into the school. Rather it will be used to provide extra capacity overall and help to reduce the pressure on rooming at the school. Not only have we operated over our capacity for many years, we have also run the Balcarras Maths Hub and GLOW maths from the Balcarras site which also puts pressure on rooms and resources. Both of these initiatives are crucial to the success of the school and we are pleased that the school will be able to more easily host their professional meetings into the future. From 2022 the plan is to move the business department into the new building which will free up space in the rest of the school.

The building will be sited at the front of the school by the DT department and alongside our border with Charlton Kings Junior School. Although this will mean losing one of the football courts from the front, the recent development of four brand new courts at the back of the school means that we can easily accommodate this.

The High School Leckhampton

The building is being provided in the first instance to host The High School Leckhampton during its first year, before the school moves to its purpose built facilities at Farm Lane in 2022. The High School will operate from the building although it will share some of Balcarras’ facilities e.g. PE and catering. The school will operate on a split lunch with Balcarras and the sharing of any facilities will be done so as not to negatively affect the work of Balcarras.

The plan to host the school here at Balcarras is obviously dependent on planning approval. We will update the website when we have any further news but it is not likely to be before the end of September.

Dominic Burke