Announcement

Secretary of State approves the opening of Merstham Park School

Another milestone was reached on 16 February for Merstham Park School when the Secretary of State signed the Funding Agreement for the school.  This means that the school is now set to open in September 2018, subject to approval of the planning application.

Merstham Park will be a 11-16 secondary school with 180 places per year, and will admit up to 180 year 7 students this September. The school will ultimately be housed in a brand new building on the site of Chart Wood School in Merstham. Chart Wood School is being relocated by Surrey County Council to a new building in Dorking. In the interim, Merstham Park will be co-located on part of the Chart Wood site, in its own temporary accommodation.

Martin Beard, Headteacher for Merstham Park, said “I am delighted that the Funding Agreement has been signed. This will provide further assurance to those families who have applied for places at our school for September. Recruitment for our teaching team is already underway and we are looking forward to sharing more information with prospective families in the Spring Term”.

Jon Chaloner, CEO for GLF Schools which is the Multi Academy Trust which submitted the Free School application in 2015 to open the new school, added “Having had to defer the opening of Merstham Park last year, I am pleased that we have reached this stage with the Funding Agreement being signed. The letter which we received from the Department for Education recognised the commitment and energy of our team to reach this point, but more importantly this will allow us to now provide the much needed additional school places within Merstham and the wider community”.