There has been talk of a new secondary school for North Kingston for about five years, but finally plans are and in place for it to go ahead.
If this campaign has been going on for so long, why has Kingston Council chosen to grant its residents wishes now in the middle of a recession? Ex Executive member for Children and Young People's Services Mary Reid writes in her blog, “at that time the number of children did not warrant a new school”. Since then, the number of children in the borough has grown and Kingston Council has now received funding from central Government to build a new co-educational school.
As well as the growing number of children needing somewhere to go to school, the plans have also been brought about by a lot of time and effort spent campaigning by local parents and their dedication to their children and the children of their neighbours should not go unnoticed.
Proposals for the site of the new school suggest that it would serve pupils aged 11-18 and the council proposes an 8-form entry (240 pupils per year). It would be built on parts of the area where the North Kingston Centre and Hawker Centre currently stand – ages 11-16 will be taught at the North Kingston Centre site and 16-18 year olds at the Hawker Centre. The existing buildings will be demolished and replaced by ones that are 5 stories high so as to take up as little space as possible on these areas of Metropolitan Open Land, which have the same level of protection from development as Green Belt sites.
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