Headley school plans new £3m building

Cheam school - which counts the Prince of Wales among former pupils - to fund project

Cheam school in Headley – which counts the Prince of Wales among former pupils – has submitted plans for a new £3m building.

The independent school, off the A339 in Newbury Road, submitted proposals to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council on February 9, for the erection of a new school building,

with decking to the north elevation, a first floor link to

the adjacent building and new stair tower.

This will follow the demolition of the old, pre-fabricated sports hall that has existed since the 1970s and currently used by the pre-prep school as an assembly hall and afterschool club, and three classrooms adjacent to it.

The new two-floor building will instead house the pre-prep

classrooms and offices on the ground floor, as well as the art and computer design technology departments on the top

floor.

Confirming that the school would fund the project, bursar

and clerk to the governors, Mark Smith, said: “We are

awaiting consent to build and, if all goes well, site preparation will start this September with the demolition of the old sports hall on which the new building will stand.”

He added that the workwould be expected to be completed

within one year and that the former sports hall being

knocked down was not a listed building.

Mr Smith added: “The main school is a listed building, but

this project does not impact on it.”

The contemporary new building, if the plans are approved, would cover an area of 1,130 square metres over the two floors and complete a cluster of buildings forming the pre-prep school, including a new assembly hall for the

pre-prep on the ground floor, opening onto a courtyard to the west. It would incorporate sustainable technologies including natural ventilation and efficient heating systems to reduce its carbon footprint.

Materials to be used include steel and glass, with walls at

ground floor level to be brick built, complementing existing buildings.

In 2002, the final part of a £1.2m rebuilding project at

Cheam was opened by former pupil, Jimmy Taylor, then aged

81 and living in Leeds, and who was at the school with Prince Philip in the 1930s.

Mr Taylor's father, the Rev H.M.S. Taylor, who brought the

school from Cheam, Surrey, to Headley after buying it in 1934, was headteacher there while his son was a pupil with Prince Philip, from 1930 to 1933.

In 2006, four new pre-prep classrooms were installed at

the school and lowered into position, after being constructed off-site, to house the school's four and five-year-olds.

No objections have been received to the latest proposals

to date, which are due to be decided by the borough council

by no later than May 11.