Secondary looks to raise £20m after Government cut

The only Catholic voluntary-aided secondary school in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is looking to raise £15 million to £20 million to refurbish and rebuild on its site.

St Richard Reynolds Catholic College, which opened in 2013, has applied for permission to build new premises for its growing primary and secondary schools. Andrew Cole, chairman of governors, said that the two dioceses served by the schools –Westminster and Southwark –“are substantially funding the capital costs”. The school will spend £2-3 million on urgent repairs to Edwardian buildings on the site over the summer.

Prior to 2010, the Government paid 90 per cent of building costs of new voluntary-aided schools but now makes no contribution. It will pay 100 per cent of capital funding for free schools and new faith academies, on condition that they allocate a maximum 50 per cent of places on the basis of faith. Westminster Diocese would not allow Richard Reynolds to open as an academy because it wanted to offer more than half its places to Catholics.