Thanks to the dedication and hard work of the school’s staff, governors and parents,The Heights opened in September 2014 in temporary accommodation (like the majority of Free Schools). The former site of Caversham nursery is leased from Reading Borough Council and extends to 0.4 acres.
Having only secured planning consent at the end of July 2014, the EFA’s contractors worked (around the clock at times) to get the site ready whilst staff, governors, parents and volunteers worked to clear the heavily over grown outside space.
The temporary buildings are based on of a former canteen building from the Olympics (on the ground floor). It opened with 64 pupils with the expectation of moving to a permanent home by September 2016.
The school is now home to 167 pupils, with a further 50 starting in September taking it up to 220. This has been accommodated by the addition of another floor over the summer of 2016 and conversion works to reconfigure the rooms within the building over Summer half term in 2017.
In addition to expanding the school upwards, the school’s PTFA raised money for the creation of a hard-court for Westfield Park which it is able to make use of during school hours. This will remain in place once the school has moved providing users of the park with a lasting benefit.
Staying on such a constrained temporary site for longer than hoped has imposed a burden on surrounding residents, who have been very accommodating, despite already living in close proximity to our neighbouring school St Anne’s, with Thameside also on the other side of Gosbrook Road. We are tremendously grateful to them for their patience in accommodating the children of west Caversham with all the disruption that entails.