Queen’s Wood

AN independent primary school at which pupils will spend 50 per cent of the day outside has asked for planning permission to open in a church hall in Dartmouth Park.

Council planners are reviewing the application from the Wildwood Nature School, which has laid out proposals to operate in the hall in York Rise owned by the St Mary’s Brookfield parish church.

It aims to open in September and reach a capacity of 40 by the end of 2027, and said 30 per cent of these places would be offered free to children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

”In a letter to the Town Hall, Reverend Damien Mason, from St Mary’s Brookfield, said previous occupiers of the hall – the York Rise Nursery­ – no longer used the premises.

“The hall has been underused and heavily subsidised by St Mary Brookfield Church,” he said. “We are now delighted with our new tenants who wish to bring value to our community by taking on the hall and lease which will not only help them in their work, but will be of significant support and benefit to our work too.”

Nearly two full days a week will be spent at Queens Wood, the planning application said, adding: “This should create significantly less noise than the neighbours will have been used to from York Rise Nursery, which used the alleyway as their main outdoor play space throughout the day.”

The plans come at a time when state primary schools are struggling with a pupil shortage – a trend which has been blamed on a lack of affordable family housing in north London. Three schools have closed or made the decision to close.

The hall owned by St Mary’s Brookfield was built in the 1950s to replace a Victorian church building destroyed by World War II bombing. The new operators say it will be opened up to the community in the evenings with after school clubs and yoga and meditation sessions.

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