Schools and community facilities

New secondary school

We built a new secondary school in Arborfield, which opened in September 2016. The school is run by Bohunt Educational Trust.

Two new primary schools

The new village will have two primary schools: one located on the northern part of the site which has had an application approved under 180846 and one on the southern part. Both primary schools will have two classes per year (two form-entry). The primary school located within the north of the development, accessed off Biggs Lane, is under construction and the school in the southern part of the development will come as part of a later phase.

Community facilities

The development will include a district centre and two neighbourhood centres, one to the north and one to the south.

• The district centre will likely include a food store and a community centre. The outline planning permission includes additional space that allows a range of other potential uses in the district centre, such as shops, banks and estate agents, restaurants and cafes, pubs and wine bars, hot food takeaways, offices, non-residential institutions such as clinics and nurseries, and leisure facilities such as cinemas and bowling alleys. A design brief has been submitted and is currently under review. Whilst this document is high level, it does provide details of potential uses within the centre.  There will be some flats and houses on the upper floors of the district centre buildings.
• The 2 neighbourhood centres will be designed to act as community hubs within the new residential neighbourhoods, providing local retail, community, recreation and education facilities for the residents to enable them to access local facilities without the need to travel. The northern neighbourhood centre, located off Biggs Lane near the primary school, has permission and is currently under construction.
• The development will include extra care facilities of around 80 self-contained homes for older people with varying levels of care and support available on site. Outline permission has been granted for the extra care facilities but the details are yet to be decided.