Montessori school prepares to move home

Bursar and joint founder Janet Pearson said, while it was sad to leave, it was important for the future.

She said: “Our big break came when Canary Wharf Group gave us a lease on good terms at Heron Quay.

They’ve been good to us – when we needed our first expansion they gave us more space.

“But in the last 18 months we got to the point where there was no more space and we had to start looking around.�

The site secured is at Great Eastern Enterprise Centre in Millharbour near South Quay DLR station, which will allow the school a capacity of 210 students.

Although it is not permanent – the initial lease will be for two-and-a-half years – it has given Ms Pearson time to try to organise a long-lease facility. She said: “It’s important we find a permanent home around here for the school.�

The school, founded by Janet and headteacher Sarah Greenwood, is funded by fees – between £6,500 and £11,000 a year – but it is not profit driven and has yet to make a profit.

It opened in 1994 in a sports hall in Wapping and nearly got a permanent home in the late ’90s, thanks to the London Docklands Development Corporation.

Janet said: “We agreed a place with the LDDC on a 250 year lease.

“We had full planning permission and it was fully designed with a model at the Royal Academy, but it fell through because the LDDC folded.

“I spent the last day of its existence on the phone trying to get it signed.�

The school moved to Canary Wharf in 2005. It is most recognisable for its playground on the dock.

Janet said: “The pontoon was already there but we needed to fundraise to get the fence. It’s been great for the children, for whom the highlight is often seeing a seal swim past, and we’ll really miss it. However, the new area has a playground, which we don’t have to cross a road to get to.�

- Canary Wharf may be losing its floating playground but the region looks like gaining a playground on a roof.

Faraday School, which is fee-paying and not-for-profit, is coming to Trinity Buoy Wharf in September.

Run by the New Model School, based in North Kensington, Faraday’s will be taking reception and Year One pupils, with Years Two and Three if there is sufficient demand.

The group was looking for an area to open up its latest educational centre, but it was Eric Reynolds of Urban Space Management, which owns the site, who made the initial approach.

New Model School chief executive Rick Williams said: “Mr Reynolds read an article about us and contacted us because we said we were looking for more sites. He said he might have what we were looking for.

“It’s an exciting location overlooking the Dome, and right alongside the Lea.�

The group decided to name the school after Michael Faraday when they found out the Trinity Buoy Wharf lighthouse was used by the physicist for some experiments.

It will have its playground on the roof at the site and fees will be £5,300 per year at the school.

Go to faradayschool.co.uk