School expansion plan to be voted on

A TILEHURST primary school could be set for a transformation.

Reading Borough Council has applied to redevelop the Ranikhet Academy, which would double its capacity.

Plans show the redevelopment would involve knocking down all buildings and replacing them with a two-storey structure.

It would allow the school to become a two-form entry, meaning there would be two classes of pupils for each year from reception to year 6.

Ranikhet Academy is currently a one-form entry for up to 210 pupils and a 26 place nursery.

The new school would accept 420 pupils, with the numbers for the nursery remaining the same.

The astroturf pitch would be retained but the two-court multi-use games area would be replaced.

Staff and parents would also make use of a 46-space car park accessed from Eddleston Way, which would feature three wheelchair accessible spaces and six electric charging points.

The project has received no objections and could be approved at the council’s Planning Applications Committee meeting tonight, Wednesday, March 30.

The school opened in 1970, on a site that has previously been used as a farm, a golf course, allotments and an army training depot.

The Royal Berkshire Regiment was based at the training depot during, and after, the second world war. The depot was named “Ranikhet Camp” after a hill station in India near the Tibetan border, where the regiment was garrisoned in the 1920s. It translates as “Queen’s field”.

The school’s dragon logo comes from the cap badge used by the Royal Berkshire Regiment.

Queen Victoria awarded the regiment the honour of the emblem in recognition of distinguished services during the Opium wars of the 19th centuries.

Ranikhet is run as an academy as part of the REach2 Trust, which runs a total of 60 schools, including Civitas primary in Great Knollys Street.