Benedict House signs new lease!

Benedict House signs new lease and has big plans to take the school and its students to 2050 and beyond.

Chatsworth Schools was delighted for Benedict House Headmaster, Craig Wardle to share the following letter to parents on 8th March ’22 regarding the signing of a new long term lease and the significant redevelopment planned for Benedict House Preparatory School, Sidcup.

For more press information contact Andrew Elias – marketing@chatsworthschools.com.

For admissions information, contact Charlotte Davies, Registrar – charlotte.davies@benedicthouseprepschool.co.uk

Benedict House

8th March 2022

Dear Parents of Benedict House,

I am delighted to confirm that Benedict House Preparatory School has now signed a new 30-year lease for 1-5 Victoria Road and 27 Station Road (Bird College) thus securing the long-term future of our school and allowing us to provide greatly improved facilities for our pupils and your children. As the school’s Headmaster, I am hugely proud and excited to be leading the school into this new chapter for our Benedict House community.

We will now embark on a period of improvement works at the school over the coming months and we have engaged an Architectural and Planning firm for the project. We will be sharing drawings of our exciting plans shortly and providing regular updates throughout the project. Below shows a conceptual impression of how the site could look subject to planning and consultation.

 

The proposed use of the site, following the completion of the refurbishment works, is that Pre-School to Year 4 will be located in 1-5 Victoria Road and Years 5 and 6 will be based in 27 Station Road, along with several specialist learning rooms.

These additional learning rooms will potentially include dedicated rooms for Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) activities, an IT suite and a library. The planned works will also greatly improve the outdoor spaces at Benedict House with the proposed addition of a floodlit all year synthetic turf pitch, a Forest School and an extended play space including multi-activity areas and a Jungle gym.

Securing the future of Benedict House on this enlarged site, which is more than double the size of existing school, will enable us to provide a high-quality education to more pupils and to become a two-form entry school from September 2022. Two-form entry will allow us to maintain our small class sizes, which play such an important part in the warm family environment of the school and the tailored education that every child at Benedict House receives.

We intend to split the refurbishment activity into work that we are able to complete by September 2022 and work that we expect to complete during the holidays prior to September 2023. You will see scaffolding erected around parts of the school shortly as external work begins.

We expect minimal disruption to the day-to-day operation of the school during the refurbishment, as works will either be in areas that the school does not currently use or the works will take place during the school holidays.

This is an exciting time for Benedict House and there is much to look forward to for the whole school community. We will still be a small school that prides itself on our inclusivity and close-knit family feel, but with additional space, more subject specialist staff and better facilities that will enable us to provide even more opportunities for our pupils.

Yours sincerely,

Craig Wardle
Benedict House School Headmaster

Fred Knipe
Chatsworth Schools CFO

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