A LEGAL challenge to the building of a school for children of all ages has been rejected despite fears the plan will damage children’s education.

At a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, on January 24, a judge ruled that Lewisham Council is able to continue with its plan for a new all-age foundation school, due to open in September 2010.

The new Prendergast Vale School will be built on the present site of Lewisham Bridge Primary School in Elmira Street, Lewisham.

The National Union of Teacher’s questioned whether the council was legally able to set up a school for pupils aged three to 16, rather than separate primary and secondary schools.

But the judge ruled it was legal because the school could be deemed in law to be a middle school.

A petition was signed by more than 100 people opposed to the school before the plan was approved at a Lewisham Council meeting in August.

Eleanor Davies, of Ermine Road, Lewisham, sends her five-year-old son Oliver to the school and is angry at the court’s ruling.

The 40-year-old said: “I think it’s a shocking decision.

“Parents are concerned because the site is so small. There will be more than 500 children, the majority of whom will be older, and those children’s needs will differ from the needs of younger children.

“It’s also not physically possible to fit the number of children on that site and that’s never been addressed properly.”

Lewisham NUT secretary Martin Powell-Davies says the court’s decision is disappointing.

He said: “Plans to put children from the ages of three to 16 in one school building is an experiment which is taking risks with the education of local children.

“The fact that Lewisham’s new school will have to be its only middle school confirms that the council is experimenting with largely untested methods.

“While the council may have won the legal argument, the NUT believes that they still have much to do to convince parents of the educational benefits.”

Mr Powell-Davies says a crisis could now be developing over primary school places, because the amount of new children being admitted at the school has been halved from 60 to 30.

He said: “In deciding to squeeze an all-through school onto the site of Lewisham Bridge primary school, the council have had to cut one form of entry from its original primary intake.

“But this is just when hundreds of additional properties are being built in the surrounding streets.”

He adds that Greenwich Council’s decision to close Charlotte Turner Primary School, in Benbow Street, Deptford, will add further pressure on primary school places in Lewisham.

Councillor Robert Massey, Lewisham Council cabinet member for children and young people, says the new school is needed to provide for a rising population in the area.

He said: “Most parents are very enthusiastic about the plan and it’s by no means the smallest site for a school we have got.

"We are concerned about the effect the rising population of pupils at primary level has, but we have been successful in getting funding to expand some of our primary schools."

The demolition of the school will take place on a date to be decided.

Pupils will be moved to a temporary site when work on the school begins but a decision on when or where they will go has not been made yet.