Hertfordshire school wants to build eight new classrooms

A site plan showing where the new building would be located
-Credit:JLM Architecture/East Herts Council


A secondary school in Ware has asked for permission to build eight new classrooms. The Chauncy School wants to construct a new single-storey building for the classrooms next to their tennis courts.

Currently, the area where the building would be is taken up by “mobile classroom units”. The school has seen its pupil numbers grow rapidly in recent years, from 979 in 2013 to around 1,400 now, and the application to East Herts Council for planning permission said “additional classrooms - above those being replaced - are essential for its function”.

Pupils and staff would be able to enter the new building at each end, with a corridor down the middle leading to classrooms on both sides. According to the application, the building will “match” existing school buildings - including those closest to the new one - and will not lead to a loss of light or privacy for any neighbours.

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It is designed to “provide easy disabled access and communication links with the existing school building”. The new building - which would have a floorspace of 3,629 square metres - would have a flat roof, cedar cladding and aluminium windows and doors.

Another building at The Chauncy School was recently in the news, with the school-owned Fanshawe Swimming Pool closing last month after government funding towards it came to an end.