Juniper House School opens on Englefield Road this September for up to 15 children a day plus 8 living on site, with open days on 19 August and 24 September, 11am to 2pm.

A new independent special school for children who cannot cope in mainstream classrooms opens on the edge of Theale in September, and its operator is holding the first of two open days this Wednesday, 19 August, from 11am to 2pm.

Juniper House School will occupy The Old Agency, the former Englefield Estate office on Englefield Road, RG7 5DU. It is run by Amegreen Children’s Services, the Mortimer-based care and education company that already runs Haywards Farm School in Theale and Northcroft School in Newbury. Amegreen’s own site announces that Juniper House “opens this September” and invites families to an open day on Wednesday 19 August or Thursday 24 September, 11am to 2pm. The school’s own website is still marked “coming soon” and gives a referrals address, Schoolreferrals@amegreened.co.uk, and a phone number, 0118 3348 777.

What the planning record says the school will be

The most detailed public description of the school is in the planning file. West Berkshire Council approved 25/00765/FUL, “Change of use of the existing offices into a SEND School with residential care”, on 3 October 2025. The case officer’s report, which we have read in full, sets out the scale:

  • A maximum of 15 children in the school during the day, with 12 members of staff. The officer recommended a condition capping pupil numbers, because the highways assessment was based on those figures.
  • 8 children living on site in the residential care part of the building, in what the report calls a “family style” arrangement of shared living rooms, kitchen and dining room, with staff supervising at night and changing over between 2pm and 3pm.
  • Day pupils who do not live on site “would be picked up and dropped off by minibus”, which the report says answers Theale Parish Council’s worry about clashing with drop-off at Theale Primary School.
  • The school use “would cease at 15:00 on weekdays and not in operation over the weekend”.
  • The permission is restricted to a SEND school (use class F1) and residential care (C2), so the building cannot switch to another use without a fresh application.

The building itself is described as a largely vacant estate office reached by a tree-lined drive, with two cottages at the entrance and a large garden. Works are limited to a boundary fence for a play area, cycle parking, and removing an old greenhouse and swimming pool. The site is outside any settlement boundary, in Flood Zone 1, with a Minerals Safeguarding Area designation and Tree Preservation Order trees along the drive.

Englefield Parish Council raised no objection. Theale Parish Council raised no objection but flagged the primary school traffic point. No members of the public commented at all, which is rare for a change of use in the countryside.

Why the council said yes

The officer weighed the loss of office floorspace, which the newly adopted Local Plan Review says the district is short of, against what the report calls “substantial social benefits”. Paragraph 100 of the National Planning Policy Framework tells councils to give “great weight” to the need to create schools, and the report accepts the applicant’s case that there is “a need for SEND provision within West Berkshire” and a need for care places for looked-after children. It concludes that “delivering SEND and accommodation for looked after children in an ideal setting” outweighs the lost offices.

The report also notes that Amegreen is a local employer, with an operational base in Sulhamstead and existing SEND schools in Theale and Newbury. Amegreen’s own news pages record that Haywards Farm School opened in Theale in September 2023 for primary pupils, and that Northcroft School in Newbury was approved in July 2024 for 15 pupils aged 11 to 16 with autism, ADHD, trauma and sensory needs.

What it means for you

  • If your child has an EHCP and is out of school, this is a new local option to raise with West Berkshire’s SEND team, who commission independent special school places. Ask at the open day whether places are being taken directly or only through the council.
  • If you want to look round, the two dates are Wednesday 19 August and Thursday 24 September, both 11am to 2pm, at Englefield Road, RG7 5DU. The site is off the Theale to Englefield road, not in the village centre.
  • If you live nearby, the planning conditions are your reference point: daytime school hours only, weekday only, a minibus rather than a school-run queue, and a cap on pupil numbers.
  • One thing we could not confirm today: the school did not appear on the Department for Education’s Get Information About Schools register when we searched on 16 August. Independent schools must be registered with the DfE, following an Ofsted pre-registration inspection, before they can admit pupils, so expect that entry to appear before or around opening. We will update when it does.

For other schools news across the district, see our recent report on A-level results at Newbury schools.