Building links with Merton Council

Bedelsford School were delighted to welcome Councillor Sally Kenny, Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning and Beverley Hendricks, the Executive Director for Children, Lifelong Learning and Families and at Merton Council for a visit.

The visit was part of the process of building the working relationship between the school and the Council in preparation for the opening of the Bedelsford School satellite site in Merton. This will be a temporary extension to provide places for children in the borough of Merton at the Chaucer Centre from September 2025.

Emmet Murphy, Principal of Bedelsford School, said: “We are grateful to have the opportunity during this visit to showcase the high standards of education and care we provide to our pupils and are very much looking forward to replicating the same provision at the new Chaucer Centre satellite site.”

In the first year the centre will provide 40 places and will have the potential to increase up to 80 places over a three-year period. Pupils and staff will transfer from this temporary site to a brand-new Free School which has been approved by the Department for Education and will be part of Orchard Hill College Academy Trust.

Lynn Barratt, Executive Director of Development for the Trust said, ““We are very much looking forward to working with Merton Council and establishing the satellite site to meet the significant demand for high quality special education needs places in the borough.”