Dundonald School Governors have approved plans for an additional reception year class to open at the school this coming September.

Letters offering these extra places will be sent to parents with the second round of offers in May.

According to Merton Council’s press release:

The council agrees with the school governors that the extra class does not presume that permanent expansion to a two-form entry (420 places) primary school will follow, but there will be a detailed consultation starting in early May.

The Council also seeks to replace the park pavillion to cope with the permanent expansion of the school.

Merton, like other London boroughs, faces a serious shortage of primary school places – owing to rising birth rates. The Council recently carried out a consultation process on two potential options to deal with this issue.

Both options were based on adding extra forms to eight existing schools (St Mary’s, Singlegate, Liberty, Gorringe Park, William Morris, Morden, Dundonald and one other primary school), but on top of that, plans were drawn up for either a new school, potentially on Gap Road, or instead to use the South Wimbledon Community Centre buildings as well as expanding Bishop Gilpin Primary.

Following the consultation, the Labour Council administration chose to proceed with their preferred option to use the Community Centre/expand Bishop Gilpin.

Wimbledon’s Parliamentary Campaigner Shas Sheehan said:

Given the desperate lack of primary school places, we reluctantly support the expansion of existing schools. We also support the building of a new school. But alone it is not enough. We can’t just keep increasing the size of existing schools. Higher birth rates are ultimately going to have a knock-on effect on secondary schools, and we must prepare for this too. We need to be thinking about the future – will we need even more primary schools? More secondary schools? We need to be setting aside land for educational use now. Not waiting for the problems to get worse.

Merton Hall Road resident Anthony Fairclough added:

We’ve particular concerns about plans to exend Dundonald primary given this requires a new building on the pavillion site. We need proper, sensitive design as well as safeguards to make sure the building work does not disrupt people’s use and enjoyment of the park.

For further reaction to the Council’s plans for primary schools, see here.

See also Merton Lib Dems’ 3 point plan for local schools.