An urgent need for more secondary school places in the town saw St Wilfrid’s, in Southgate, take on extra students – bulge classes – from September 2020.
A planning application seeking permission to expand the school was submitted to Crawley Borough Council in 2022 but issues such as water neutrality meant it wasn’t approved until August 2025.
Now the county council has approved the use of Schools Basic Need funding to get a two-storey extension, containing 14 classrooms, built.
Headteacher Michael Ferry said the school was delighted to have finally reached this stage.
He added: “To say that the process to get to where we are now has been frustrating is putting it mildly. However, following this approval, we now move into the tendering stage for Phase 1 of the building which will deliver seven classrooms which can be used whilst Phase 2 begins.
“Timings are still to be confirmed but we will be going out to tender imminently and I am hopeful that Phase 1 can be completed without any further delays.”
The county council has predicted the building work will be completed in early 2027, depending on the availability of contractors.
Discussions about expanding St Wilfrid’s into a six Form of Entry school – one that has six classes in each year group – started in 2019.
When the school began taking bulge classes, it was hoped that the new building would be in place by the time the first cohort reached Key Stage 4. They are now in Key Stage 5.
Mr Ferry said: “The water neutrality issues were a key obstacle and it is ironic that after finally meeting all of the requirements and gaining planning permission in August 2025, that only two months later, all water neutrality conditions were suspended.”
Mr Ferry said space at St Wilfrid’s was severely limited, with room usage at 99 per cent. Some class sizes have had to increase simply because there is not enough teaching space.
He added: “The new classrooms will give us greater flexibility across the curriculum and hopefully allow us to reduce class sizes in certain subjects/year groups.”
Praising the work of his staff, he added: “During all of this time, the staff of St Wilfrid’s have worked tirelessly in coping with the demands of us being ‘full’ and their support has been phenomenal.
“Soon, hopefully very soon, they will be able to enjoy the extra space.”
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