Cherry Garden Special School Satellite
Southwark Council and Cherry Garden School are seeking your views on proposals to expand the Cherry Garden Special School.
It’s no secret that the number of children with special educational needs is increasing everywhere in the country, and the same is happening in Southwark. For our younger children this can sometimes mean we haven't quite got the right number of special school places that would meet their needs better, and they might have to wait for the best places for them.
The council is committed to making sure more of our pupils who need special school places can get access to them. This means working in partnership with our successful local schools, where it’s the right thing to do, to create more places.
Phases
Statutory Consultation
The proposal is to expand Cherry Garden Special School into a satellite premises that will be inside unused space at the Bellenden Primary School. Due to the numbers of pupils at Bellenden School falling in recent years, the school has more space than it needs. By adapting that spare space we can secure the future of Bellenden School, and create new spaces for Cherry Garden's pupils. We will do work to make sure both groups of pupils have their own spaces but it's also an opportunity for us to create a more inclusive shared community for pupils, with both schools working together. Bellenden and Cherry Garden schools are just under a mile apart and that's about a 4 minute drive or a 15 minute walk. This means the schools sites will be able to share resources and have a fantastic integrated offer for all of our children.
The new spaces are in a great condition and need just a little bit of work to get them ready and fully accessible for Cherry Garden's children so we hope to be able to open the new places for the start of September 2025.
We invite any interested party to let us know their thoughts. The survey is now available for your feedback and will remain open until Monday 26th May 2025. Paper copies of the survey will also be made available at both current schools.
Documents giving you a bit more background information on the current plans are available for download below.