Turing House School temporary site officially named after lease agreement secured

Livingston House, in Queens Road, will house the school when it opens in September though there is still speculation about a more permanent site.

Council cabinet member for education, Paul Hodgins, said confirmation the school is guaranteed to open in September was great news for parents.

He said: "Richmond Council is committed to work with the Education Funding Agency (EFA) to help get Turing House established in the borough, and we continue to work with them now to help secure a permanent site."

Turing House headteacher, Colin Mackinlay, confirmed EFA was pursuing two possible locations for the school’s permanent home, thought to be a site on Whitton’s border with Hounslow and Teddington’s Udney Park playing fields.

The Whitton site, thought to be favoured by Richmond Council, is a large field between Heathfield recreation ground and Sempervirens Nursey, near Twickenham Academy.

Turing House is part of a group of schools and sports clubs that has made a formal declaration of interest in acquiring the Imperial College playing fields in Udney Park Road, after the university put the site up for sale last year.

Leader of the opposition and councillor for Teddington, Stephen Knight, was sure the Livingston House location could be made to work in the short-term but worried a permanent site was yet to be secured for the school, because it was not an ideal location in the longer term.

He said: "My concern is around access and traffic as well as air pollution but I understand there are a limited number of sites around that are available and it is clearly critical the school can open in September.

"From my understanding they will use it for up to three years and they believe it will be a suitable building until a long-term solution can be put in place."

Turing House School received 285 applications for its first intake of students and made its firm offers to parents before Easter.