£3.6m Autism Centre Opens at Woking's St John the Baptist

A £3.6m specialist building for autistic secondary pupils has been completed at St John the Baptist School on Elmbridge Lane, in time for the new school year.

The Aquinas Centre is a SEN unit inside a mainstream school. It has capacity for 30 pupils and is designed for children who hold an Education, Health and Care Plan with autism recorded as their primary need. Its first cohort started in September 2025 in temporary accommodation, and the school said it expected the permanent building to be open by September 2026 (St John the Baptist School, the Aquinas Centre).

The project was delivered by TG Escapes for Surrey County Council, which commissioned it. Its published project value is £3.6m and its completion year is 2026 (TG Escapes case study, SEND inclusion base at St John the Baptist School).

What is in the building

The contractor’s own record lists the rooms as:

• dedicated classrooms
• a life skills kitchen
• group rooms
• sensory rooms
• a therapy room
• a staff room and offices
• a reception area

Roughly one third of the total project value went on external works and landscaping rather than the building itself. That share paid for:

• a biodiverse rain garden managing surface water along the access road
• native buffer planting, new trees and managed meadowland
• a 37-space car park with EV charging and accessible bays
• cycle and scooter storage with e-bike charging
• dedicated access routes and a minibus drop-off
• play areas with sensory surfaces, seating and social space

The site adjoins mature woodland. The design deliberately shares outdoor space with the rest of the school rather than fencing the unit off.

Anna Dwyer, deputy head at St John the Baptist, said the centre had taken “nearly five years of planning”. Her point was that it is not a separate experience. “The young people who access the Centre will be full members of our school community, learning alongside their peers for the majority of their school journey while benefiting from bespoke support when they need it,” she said.

How the places actually work

This is the part parents most often get wrong, so it is worth stating plainly. St John the Baptist is not the admissions authority for the Aquinas Centre. Places are allocated by Surrey County Council after a multi-professional team considers the case, in consultation with the school. From September 2026 the centre takes six Year 7 pupils, building towards its 30 over time.

The school publishes the criteria Surrey works to during consultation. A child must:

• already hold an EHCP, with autism as the identified priority need
• have a level of anxiety requiring autism-specific support
• be working at National Curriculum Year 5 or above in English, reading, maths and science, with the expectation of at least seven GCSEs or equivalent Level 2 qualifications
• be able to cope in mainstream classes of 30 to 33, with an expectation of 70 per cent or better in them after targeted support
• need no more than 1:3 staff support on average in mainstream lessons
• manage their own personal care
• have no history of violent outbursts against pupils or staff

Pupils in the centre start slightly earlier and finish slightly later than the rest of the school, so staff can run a check-in at the start and a debrief at the end of the day. They can spend break and lunch in the centre. Initially they do not study languages or computing, or take part in whole-class reading, which frees timetable space for interventions.

The wider Surrey picture

The Aquinas Centre is the fourth SEND scheme TG Escapes has built for Surrey County Council. The earlier three include a SEND hub for visually impaired pupils at Woking High School and a SEN unit at Stepgates Community School in Chertsey.

Surrey has delivered 1,577 new specialist places since 2021, which it puts at 66 per cent of its capital programme target. In February 2026 its cabinet approved three further tranches (Surrey County Council, 24 February 2026):

• £16.14m of 2025/26 High Needs Provision Capital Allocation grant, for at least 220 new specialist places in the 2026/27 academic year
• two DfE-funded free schools, Betchwood Vale Academy in Mole Valley (180 places, autism and communication needs) and Frimley Oak Academy in Surrey Heath (170 places, social, emotional and mental health needs), 350 places between them
• £8.1m of alternative capital funding for 150 places, after the council agreed with the DfE not to proceed with a third proposed free school

Cllr Helyn Clack, the cabinet member for children, families and lifelong learning, put the reason for the programme bluntly: “In Surrey, we know families can face delays and long journeys, and too many children are placed in independent settings, often far from home, simply because we do not yet have the places available locally.”

Surrey’s capital programme manager, Euan Leslie, gave the same rationale for the Woking scheme. The aim was places “based in a special unit situated on a mainstream school campus”. That, he said, “enables pupils to be educated closer to home and reduces the need for costly independent-sector placements.”

What it means for you

If you have a child with an EHCP who might suit the centre, the route runs through Surrey, not the school office. Talk to your SEN case worker and your primary school SENCO first, because Surrey has to agree to consult the school for a unit placement before anything else happens. The school asks parents to contact its SEND department through the contact form on its website to discuss suitability, and its number is 01483 729343. Places are limited to six a year in Year 7, so the timing is the Year 6 to Year 7 transfer, not a mid-year move.

If your child does not meet the criteria above, this is not the provision for them, and the criteria are strict on purpose. The centre is built for pupils who can access the mainstream curriculum with support, not as an alternative to a special school.

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