The Greenshaw Learning Trust has been invited to the Department for Education for an interview later this month to determine whether they will be given the green light to open a new secondary school to meet the need for school places in Sutton.

The Greenshaw Learning Trust took the initiative to submit an application to the DfE for money from the 'free school' budget as the best way to secure the finance needed to build the new school and ensure it could be open in 2017.

The new school would be a local community school offering a broad curriculum and including a sixth form. It will ultimately take 1450 students and operate as part of the Greenshaw family of schools.

The application included detailed education plans and budgets, and evidence to demonstrate that the school has local support and is needed in Sutton. The Greenshaw Learning Trust worked with local primary schools to inform parents of our proposal and seek their support for the new school.

There is an urgent need to provide more secondary school places in Sutton. The increase in the local population of young people has already impacted on primary schools and these students will soon be transferring to secondary school. Many local secondary schools are expanding, but in addition Sutton Council has identified the need for a new secondary school to open in 2017, and probably a second new school a few years later. 

Will Smith, Executive Headteacher of the Greenshaw Learning Trust said: “We are thrilled to get through to the next stage of the process for opening the much needed new secondary school in Sutton. We are grateful to colleagues from across the schools in Sutton who have supported our bid and also to the great many parents currently in primary schools who have signed up to say they would want to send their children to the proposed new school.”

For more information, please contact:
Greenshaw Learning Trust, Grennell Road, Sutton Surrey, SM1 3DY.
Email: sowen@greenshaw.co.uk

For more details about the Greenshaw Learning Trust, please click here.