Wellingborough secondary school's plans for ‘urgently required’ new building including four classrooms to address shortfall in school spaces

Plans were submitted on May 7, and validated by North Northants Council yesterday (June 2) for a new building, allowing the Wellingborough school to take on more students after the school was asked to increase the number of spaces they can offer across all year groups.

The building would also help to ‘improve child safety’, as it could keep students on the Doddington Road premises, instead of having to utilise classroom space within the London Road site, a 10 to 15-minute walk away due to the lack of existing classroom space within the Doddington Road site.

A planning document reads: "Due to high levels of teaching standards, Wrenn School has become a popular choice for parents meaning the school is over-subscribed.

"Across north Northamptonshire there is a significant need for additional secondary school spaces meaning that existing schools such as Wrenn School need to urgently increase the number of spaces it can provide.

"To facilitate this, an additional building is required to provide additional classroom space within the Doddington Road campus.

"The proposed new building is urgently required to ensure that the school can provide appropriate classroom facilities for its student population, which is due to increase for the school year commencing September 2025.”

If approved, it would be located immediately to the rear of an existing Doddington Road school building on a site currently used for staff parking, which would create a net loss in staff parking of approximately 14 spaces, however plans say the ‘wider school site provides ample parking spaces for staff and guests.’

The proposal says the 7.18m building will house four classrooms across two storeys, as well as toilets and office/storage space. Externally, the application includes the provision of twelve external lights on a day/night sensor so as to not disturb nearby residents, and a 1.8m fence around the perimeter of the building, for safety purposes.

Read the full application here, or by searching NW/25/00266/FUL on the North Northants Council planning portal.