Dukes Education proposes establishing a new senior school within the Kneller Hall building and site. 

Kneller Hall, the guardroom and band practice room will all be carefully protected with repair and restoration works undertaken to the buildings. Dukes Education wants to retain the site’s historical musical legacy. The bandstand will continue to be used, and the Guardroom will be converted into a music centre for the school.

It is also proposed to convert the band practice hall to a circa 275 person theatre. The space will be able to be used flexibly by the school as a theatre, for school assemblies, for drama lessons and as a rehearsal space.

The proposals also include the development of new buildings on the site, which will provide high quality and modern teaching accommodation. A further three-storey L shaped teaching block is proposed on the western part of the site. The new buildings are being carefully designed to consider their appearance and relationship with existing buildings and the site’s context, including the nearby residential properties.

The new buildings also allow the site to provide a wide range of sporting options for students, local community groups, and schools. These include a sports hall, swimming pool and sports pavilion.

Additionally, there will be two outdoor tennis courts, an outdoor astroturf, two grassed sports pitches and a forest school. The forest school programme is an exciting opportunity to educate children in an outdoor setting. It will take place in a small shelter in the northern part of the site, part of the ecological pathway.

Landscaping improvements are proposed across the site, including additional planting.

In Years seven to 11 and the sixth form currently located at Pope’s Villa, pupils will be relocated to Kneller Hall Each year the school will grow in size. In several years, the school will cater for 750 students with a capacity for further expansion up to 1,000 pupils.

Plans are anticipated to be submitted to the London Borough of Richmond in the autumn of 2022.

 

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