St George's Estates Development Project
The 3rd pillar of our plan, A Voice for the Future: St George's Strategic Plan, includes a commitment to a ten-year Estates Development Strategy of upgrades, refurbishment and development to the Ravelston campus.
This new development project will bring all the school’s facilities and pupils together on our main Ravelston campus, creating a more united school.
There will be new spacious and versatile teaching areas which will enrich and extend the teaching in many disciplines using digital technology.
This means that the Lansdowne site (which currently houses our Lower School pupils) will be sold and we will build an innovative new building on the main campus for our Lower School.
With this project, we marry our past with the needs of 21st century learning, as we continue to pioneer the best possible education, school experience and facilities designed especially for the needs of girls.
The new development will enhance teaching, learning across a range of subjects and provide a pastoral and wellbeing hub for the key transition stage of 10- to 13-year-olds (the age range of our Lower School pupils). The building will have:
1. Versatile, well-equipped, innovative teaching and learning spaces that facilitate multi-disciplinary learning such as:
- Problem-solving (e.g. Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) and creative projects)
- Enterprise or design group work and presentations
- Extended project-based learning
- Digital and computing skills (which can be extended to the wider community to reach as many girls as possible)
- Opportunities to work in new ways with external experts from industry and universities, collaborating and designing solutions to real-world issues.
2. A new bespoke designed Lower School hub and wellbeing centre with the needs of 10- to 13-year-old girls at its heart.
3. A main reception and welcome area for the whole school that also provides opportunity to display our valuable historical archive material.
4. Meeting and video-conferencing facilities to support communication and projects with partner-schools, including those overseas.
You can read more about the plans for the building on the Ravelston campus including the timescales, the sale of Lansdowne, and the exciting opportunities this project will bring to our pupils, by downloading this brochure PDF.
Lansdowne House
This new development on the Ravelston campus will be funded by the future sale of the Lansdowne site to ensure that the financial cost of these new purpose-built facilities will not fall upon existing families or require the school to fund the project through borrowing.
Lansdowne House became a part of St George’s in 1976, an addition to our main Ravelston campus established in 1914. Lansdowne House's legacy as a stand-alone school and part of St George’s is a valued aspect of our history. As we transition, we are committed to preserving Lansdowne's identity within St George’s. While putting the Lansdowne site on the market may evoke mixed emotions, we will ensure that development plans respect the building’s character and the surrounding area.
Timeline
We have tentative preliminary dates for the development; however, it is an evolving plan that can adapt to changing circumstances.
- August 2024 - Marketing commences
The pre-application for planning on the Lansdowne site has now been submitted, based on the principle of residential development, and marketing will begin in earnest from the end of August 2024.
- 2024-2025 - Temporary Lower School relocation
Depending on the pace of the land sale, we plan to relocate Lower School pupils to temporary Lower School hubs within the main campus Junior and Upper Schools. We expect the relocation to begin during the 2024-2025 academic session.
- 2024-2025 - Design of the new building
Planning the design of our new building on the main campus will also begin in the 2024-2025 academic session, subject to finding the right buyer for the Lansdowne site.
- 2026 - Anticipated commencement of works
Work on our new building will commence at the earliest in 2026 and we intend for the build to take no more than two years from breaking ground to completion.
We will be actively communicating with all of our stakeholders and friends of the school throughout the build to ensure that everyone is kept informed and up to date on our plans.