Extra Classrooms For Popular Southfields Primary

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Planning permission granted for extra classrooms at Sheringdale School

Popular and high achieving primary Sheringdale School in Standen Road will be able to admit an extra 30 local children every year, while teaching facilities for existing pupils will be enhanced with the construction of a new two storey extension to the school building.

The extension will accommodate eight new modern classrooms and enable a temporary classroom to be removed from the school site. The new classrooms will allow the school roll to rise from 285 to 405 and help address growing pressure on school places in Southfields.

According to Ofsted inspectors who visited the school in February, Sheringdale is an “outstanding” primary school.

They concluded: “Outstanding teaching ensures that pupils make rapid progress and achieve exceptionally well whatever their starting points. Standards at the end of Year 6 are significantly above average in reading, writing and mathematics.

“Teachers encourage pupils to be resilient and to persevere and so pupils have a remarkable determination to do well and take great pride in their accomplishments. Pupils are confident and have extremely good social skills which, along with their excellent academic achievements, means they are exceptionally well prepared for secondary school.”

The council has taken firm steps to provide additional classroom places across the borough for four and five-year-olds, in response to the steady increase in the annual birthrate. Between 2002 and 2011 the number of children being born in the borough rose from 4,080 to 5,477.

Over the past three years more than 25 additional reception classes have opened in schools across the borough to meet the growing demand from parents.

Extra classes will be available this September at Smallwood, and Granard schools, while three new free schools have also opened in Tooting, Balham and Roehampton. In September 2015, additional classes will be opening at Hillbrook, Allfarthing and Albemarle schools as well as at Sheringdale

Two brand new academies - each accommodating up to 420 pupils - are also scheduled to open in September 2015 and September 2016 respectively. These are on land formerly occupied by the Atheldene Centre in Earlsfield and at the vacant and derelict Putney Hospital site.

Wandsworth’s education spokesman Cllr Kathy Tracey said:
“Sheringdale is a really popular primary school that’s rated outstanding. Providing these extra places will help meet the demand of parents in this part of Southfields who want their children to attend a really friendly, excellent and very high achieving school.

“We have also drawn up detailed long term plans to ensure that we have enough places in other parts of the borough in the years ahead. This involves expanding some of our other best performing and popular schools, supporting the growth of free schools and opening two new academies in Putney and Earlsfield.”

The growth in demand for primary places in Wandsworth is not only due to an increased birth rate, but also because of sustained improvements in teaching and learning at local schools.

School standards watchdog Ofsted currently rates 95 per cent of Wandsworth schools as good or outstanding, ranking the borough equal second nationally behind the City of London. In comparison only an average of 80 per cent of schools in other parts of the country, and 85 per cent in London, have been given the same quality rating by Ofsted inspectors.

In 2013 Wandsworth’s primary schools achieved the equal fifth best combined Key Stage 2 reading, writing and mathematics combined results across England. Wandsworth also had a higher proportion of pupils than nationally making the expected levels of progress in reading, writing and mathematics; being ranked equal second nationally in reading with 94 per cent, equal second nationally in writing with 96 per cent, and equal third nationally in mathematics with 94 per cent. The 2014 results are expected to be equally as strong.

July 24, 2014