London’s oldest private girls’ school has gained approval for a new home for its pre-prep school in Dulwich.
James Allen’s Girls’ School (JAGS), which costs over £24,000 per year to attend, received permission to construct a new building for kids aged four to seven from Southwark councillors at a meeting on Monday.
The new pre-prep school, which is just 200 metres away on East Dulwich Grove, will comprise of a three-storey teaching block, separate assembly hall and a play area for 120 pupils—13 more than the existing pre-prep school building at Dulwich Village can accommodate.
Two detached houses on East Dulwich Grove will be bulldozed to make way for the new school. But these lost homes will be replaced through the conversion of the current pre-prep school building at 2 Dulwich Village into four apartments.
Members of a local residents’ association spoke against the plans, arguing that the new school would make traffic even worse in the area.
Maggie Brown, chair of East Dulwich Grove Residents’ Association, told the meeting: “We know the road is already saturated with five schools and about 6,000 pupils. There are jams from displaced traffic. There is polluted air and it is not a happy road.”
Local Labour councillor Richard Leeeming echoed the residents’ concerns about traffic—noting that 22 per cent of the school’s pre-prep pupils travelled to school by car, compared to 10 per cent on average across London.
In a statement he read out on behalf of himself and fellow Dulwich Village councillor Margy Newens, he said: “A few years ago the former headteacher of JAGS kindly invited us both to lunch and during this meal she described the school as ‘an engine for social mobility’.
“If you ask many people living near the school to form a sentence inspired by the words ‘JAGS’ ‘engine’ and ‘mobility’, they’d come up with something related to the large number of pupils being driven to the school, sometimes accompanied by some very poor driving behaviour by the adults driving those cars.”
Cllr Leeming said that he would like to see JAGS fund a chaperoned minibus service for children attending the pre-prep school, adding that another local private school, Dulwich Prep, had already committed to investing in such a service.
Justine Addison, director of operations at JAGS, said the new pre-prep building would allow the school to have separate SEN [special educational needs] facilities, which there wasn’t space for in the current building.
Alex Hutchinson, headmistress of JAGS, said: “The existing pre-prep facility at 2 Dulwich Village, while much loved, is no longer fit for purpose. Built as an Edwardian residence, the building does not meet the expectations of a forward looking school. The classrooms are small and lack flexibility. Accessibility is limited and outdoor learning space is restricted. By relocating the pre-prep, we address these shortcomings and also unify the entire school community on one site.”
A planning committee made up of Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors unanimously approved the new school development at East Dulwich Grove and the conversion of the current pre-prep building at Dulwich Village into flats on Monday evening.
