Plans submitted for expansion of Horsham’s Tanbridge House School

The County Times exclusively revealed that the school had secured funding for the significant capital project, enabling it to increase its pupil intake in March last year.

Now a detailed application has been submitted to West Sussex County Council for the works, which includes an extension to the main hall, two new teaching blocks, additional performing arts space, and external works.

Jules White, headteacher at Tanbridge, said: “We are delighted to confirm that in partnership with WSCC, Tanbridge House is investing £5.75m in a significant capital building programme. This will include state of the art provision in areas such as science, IT, English and Media.

“We are delighted to be able to accommodate the growing demand for places at our school as we continue to place Tanbridge at the heart of the community.”

Work is expected to start in the spring and finish in time for the new school year in September 2016.

This will allow Tanbridge to move to a ten-form entry with its numbers rising to 1,500 NOR (Numbers on Roll).

Tanbridge is a specialist school in Science, Maths and Computing and is currently ranked as ‘Outstanding’.

Commenting on the expansion plans last year Jeremy Hunt, West Sussex County Council’s cabinet member for education and skills, said: “Significant additional growth has taken place in primary schools in recent years and nearly 6,000 additional places have already been, or will be, added to primary schools across the county. In some areas the growth has moved on to secondary schools and Tanbridge House is an early example of the expansion anticipated to follow in the county’s secondary schools.”