A £17million new secondary school building in Crowborough has cleared its final hurdle having been given the planning go-ahead by East Sussex County Council.
The council today (Wednesday, 20 April) approved the plans for the reorganisation of Grove Park School which will involve new school facilities at the school’s Church Road site so it can teach primary and secondary students at a single location.
The school’s secondary and sixth form classes currently take place at Beacon Academy. While secondary provision will move to Church Road, the current arrangement would continue for sixth formers.
Purpose built
The East Sussex County Council Planning committee was told the proposal would provide “a purpose-built, new school building for Secondary Education of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.”
With a big leap in the number of young people in East Sussex with special educational needs, the new facility was badly needed, councillors were told.
“Our forecasts clearly evidence that there will be a continued increase in the number of pupils with SEND in the coming years. The numbers of school aged children and young people aged 4-19 in East Sussex with an Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) has been rising steeply in recent years, from 3,126 in 2018-19 to 3,494 in 2021-22, an increase of 12%.” Officers reported.
Only special school in the north of the county
As a result of the rise in numbers of pupils with an EHCP, particularly those with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD), pupil numbers at Grove Park School, the only special school in the north of the county, had increased significantly – up 33 per cent in the last 10 years.
The new school building, councillors were told, will accommodate up to 60 pupils, including two classrooms for students with Profound Multiple Learning Difficulties. And it will be two-storey across a split level site.
The lower ground floor plan will accommodate staff offices and welfare facilities, the ground floor five classrooms, three of which would have outdoor classroom breakout spaces. The hall would also be on this level.
Linked to primary building
The first floor houses a further five classrooms with extra learning spaces such as a library. A lift at each end of the building ensures all spaces are fully accessible. The site will provide 28 additional car parking spaces. Planning officers said the new secondary school building would be linked to the existing primary school by a covered canopy walkway.
An earlier version of the proposal, which was put out to consultation in 2023, would also have seen sixth formers brought on to the Church Road site but this was dropped due to “budgetary constraints and challenging site conditions”. The council has a £17m budget for the project and expects the changes to be implemented fully from September 2027. Construction at the site to accommodate the reorganisation could start later this year.
Cllr Philip Lunn said: “I think this new school building will be a fabulous asset, not just for Crowborough, but for the whole county.”