Radnor House- How selective?

I have no issue with the private equity. They are a business that needs to make money and the best way to do that is to become a successful and desires me school locally.

@KindergartenKop to answer your initial question, radnor will be easier than the last few years to get in to as they need to get bums on seats. They have been over subscribed the last few years but are quite often a back up choice due to the limited facilities they had on the current site. new plans will make it very popular but many parents won’t take the gamble of sending their kids their before planning is approved. . I would say your best chance of joining is now as they make the move the kneller and need to fill it. Good luck

Still don't get it as you could always join very easily in year 5. In the meantime go to whatever school is the most convenient for you. Actually I would have preferred that. In any case, entry to Kneller will be very easy as they need to fill the spaces. That is the priority number one, get those fees x seats up. They are owned by private equity and revenues come first.

The new radnor model is taking children from reception all the way through to 6th form . The existing radnor only takes from year 5. If the new model was in place when I was looking for a reception place, I would have put my kids in like a shot. There are no other all through co-Ed independents locally , and assuming that they take nearly all of the children through to senior from prep, the chance to not have to worry about the 11+ would have made it very appealing.

Well you had Radnor already? Pretty easy to get in from Early years, even more years ago. I don't understand your comment.

Here's the list of major developments. If you scroll through from the bottom up and look at the "decision due" dates you'll see what I mean: www2.richmond.gov.uk/PlanData2/Planning_MajorDevelopments.aspx

I live locally, follow local issues on social media and in the press, take an interest, and can see other developments taking a long time. Richmond council's planning dept has been merged with Wandsworth and resources were cut back due to government "austerity" cuts. So they are under-resourced.

@dynamits Do you have that on good authority or conjecture. Have you actually heard someone in the planning department say that? Do you work there?

I'd like to know as it's a school we are considering.

They won't "stand in the way" but the planning department are overstretched and have a backlog of major developments ahead of this one in the queue.

I'm not sure why the council would stand in the way of the application. Wouldn't they rather see a thriving private school on the grounds of Kneller Hall than an old building going to waste and crumbling?

Assuming everything is done presently and correct - why would they want to prevent it going ahead.

I went to the open day at radnor last Saturday - the school staff then took us to Kneller hall. They will definitely be moving into Kneller Hall in September 2023 - the main building , music block & sports pavilion will be ready (not dependent on planning) and there will be a modular academic plan. Then the substantive academic block completed Easter 24 and sports complex & swimming pool by summer 24. Their contingency plan seems strong and the Head Mr Wideman is very experienced- an excellent Head. That’s what they presented to us.

At the moment it looks like its all one big planning application, which will take years, rather than "rolling" bitesize applications.

Come September 2023 kneller hall will be housing year 7 and the rest of the upper school.

Then they'll presumably need at least the "change of use" part of the planning application to be approved by then, and of course to pass health and safety checks. I know the walkways were dangerous in places.

Come September 2023 kneller hall will be housing year 7 and the rest of the upper school. Radnor are not saying the site will be complete and there is a back up plan to use the existing facilities at bushy etc for games . My understanding is that they are doing internal works now to get the place suitable for classrooms and play areas/pitches and then the rest of the works are done almost on a rolling basis as planning is granted . the current site is the prep from September 2023 .
i just wish this had been in place when my kids were younger. I would have killed for an all through co-Ed locally

Sorry I don't know but have you dug down and looked at the reception intake numbers this Sept of schools like Willington and The Study Wimbledon? They are on a par with Newland House ,The Mall in Twickenham and potential parents for the Radnor house prep which is what this thread is about.

Why sw19 still so over subscribed than here Tw.

Yes not enough dc, low birth rate, move out of London by families in the pandemic, lack of movement of international families. It's not to do with the schools and same in the primary sector - for example a catholic primary school in twickenham that use to have a tiny catchment now goes out as far as Feltham for practising Catholics.

Why is that ? Not enough kids population ? From local residents ?

I'm not surprised prep demand is low. Demand for primary places generally is low - some state primaries that people would have sold their granny to get into a few years ago are now under subscribed.

@dynamits , the demand for prep places in the whole twickenham area is low and Dukes already own a prep school in Kew (Broomfield) and Hampton Court (HCH) - HCH is a massive site with loads of potential if they decided to close the school and sell to a developer - (not that there is any indication this will happen).

Yes, that's true. I thought they were re-purposing the existing site as a prep school from Sept 23, but maybe they will have temporary capacity for both.

@dynamits , they don't need a contingency site if not enough dc accept their offers. They have space at the current Radnor house site in twickenham so if by Feb 2023 it's clear the Kneller site won't be ready then they can offer as normal to fill their twickenham site.

It would be worth asking them whether the move is fully dependent on the planning permission (I suspect it will be, because although it was already used for educationsl purposes, the application seems to include a change of use to Class F1). Perhaps they are lining up a continengy site in the meantime.

By Sept 23 they may have completed internal refurbishment of existing buildings, but that's all. You can follow the progress of their planning application online on Richmond Council's website. It has been submitted but not yet validated, which means it doesn't yet meet the basic requirements of a valid application, and doesn't have a tracking number or a page I can link to. See photo.