School plan for Malvern Hills College revealed

Plans to turn Malvern Hills College into a SEND school have been backed by the town’s civic society.

Designs submitted to the district council show what the proposed school is expected to look like.

The college closed in 2021 but is now in the hands of The Aurora Group, which plans to open a school for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in 2026.

In its planning application, Aurora highlights other buildings it has converted into schools.

These included a former golf clubhouse in Cambridgeshire, a 19th century townhouse in Wolverhampton and stately homes in Norfolk and Lancashire.

The group’s plan for the Malvern Hills College site is to reconfigure the buildings to create separate primary and secondary school spaces.

This includes the creation of a new entrance to the main building, which will become a SEND secondary school.

The Aurora Group says this will help “protect and preserve” the “historic facade” along Albert Road North.

The smaller Wyvern building would become a SEND primary school.

Both school buildings would have their own outdoor play and learning spaces – including multi-use games areas, and would share a central car park.

Malvern Civic Society, which has been in discussions with Aurora since before the group bought the site, has formally expressed its support for the application.

“The society has been keen to see that the overall external appearance of the original buildings is largely maintained and that the life drawing room and the staircase mural are kept,” said the society’s vice president Clive Hooper.

“It has been reassuring in the most recent discussions held with Aurora representatives and from the plans themselves that the intention is to fulfil those aspirations.

“Not only will the excellent floor in the life drawing room be preserved, but the whole room will remain intact and be used by the children themselves for artwork.

“It is this room upon which there is a major focus of interest for out-of-school use by the wider community and our discussions have confirmed that providing community access to that room should be quite feasible by use of zoning controls.”