Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
£6m expansion for grammar
Secondary school bosses are aiming to move pupils out of “rotten” mobile classrooms and into a state-of-the-art teaching block next spring.
Plans for the £6.1 million scheme at Simon Langton Boys in Canterbury have been officially lodged with Kent County Council (KCC).
The project involves the development of the new building, which will contain 16 classrooms, and the extension of the school’s current dining area. Head teacher Ken Moffat believes the scheme will help the site cater for an extra 30 Year 7 pupils he has pledged to take on from September 2022.
He told the Gazette: “The current mobile block is rotten and has been patched every year since 2010.
“It will just about last one more winter before it falls into total disrepair.
“The new build allows us seven more classrooms to accommodate our expansion to meet rising need in the area and it will see us through the next 50 years at least.”
The extra cohort will take the school’s total number of Year 7 places from 120 to 150. KCC confirmed it was going to finance the entire multi-million-pound scheme in January, with the authority’s education committee unanimously approving the proposal. The council says the heightened need is due to the “increase in the birth rate in Swale, inward migration and housebuilding across the Swale and Canterbury districts”. However, data compiled by the authority shows a further 137 selective school places will be needed across Years 7 to 11 by 2026 to match demand. “Work should be starting this summer, with completion around this time next year,” Mr Moffat added.
KCC submitted the plans, which will also see the addition of 28 parking spaces on the site - on the school’s behalf. “We have a duty to ensure that sufficient school places are available to meet demand,” the authority argued in newly-published planning papers.