Published: 02 September 2026
A new specialist education facility at St John the Baptist School in Woking has been completed and will welcome its first students in September, creating 30 new places for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Named The Aquinas Centre, the new building is part of Surrey County Council's commitment to ensuring children and young people can access the right support without needing to travel long distances.
The centre will initially welcome six Year 7 pupils this September before gradually expanding to provide 30 specialist places. By increasing local SEND provision, more children will be able to learn closer to home, maintain important relationships with family and friends, and remain connected to their local community.
Helyn Clack, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning, said: "The Aquinas Centre is a fantastic addition to Surrey's SEND provision, creating 30 new specialist places that will help more children and young people access the support theynneed closer to home. This investment reflects our commitment to providing inclusive education opportunities that enable every child to thrive within their local community."
Designed by sustainable construction firm TG Escapes as an inclusion base within a mainstream school setting, The Aquinas Centre will provide specialist support while enabling pupils to remain active members of the wider school community. The buildingnincludes three classrooms, a teaching kitchen, breakout spaces, four therapy rooms and outdoor learning areas designed to support a range of learning and wellbeing needs.
The £3.6 million project forms part of Surrey County Council's Inclusion and Additional Needs Partnership Strategy to expand local SEND provision and create more opportunities for children and young people to achieve positive outcomes in their education.
The building was delivered by modular construction specialist TG Escapes in just 35 weeks, helping to minimise disruption for existing pupils and ensuring the facility is ready for the start of the new school year.
Karl Stokes, Managing Director at TG Escapes, said: “The Aquinas Centre is an example of our Inclusive Learning Hub concept in action, designed to integrate SEND provision seamlessly into a mainstream school setting. Sustainable, purpose-built facilities like these reduce barriers to education and help foster genuinely inclusive learning environments where students with special educational needs can thrive alongside their peers.”
The building has also been designed with sustainability in mind, incorporating solar panels, air source heat pumps and heat recovery ventilation to create an energy-efficient learning environment.
Natalie Bramhall, Cabinet Member for Property, Infrastructure and Waste, said: "This project demonstrates how innovative, sustainable construction can help us deliver high-quality facilities quickly and efficiently for Surrey residents. The Aquinas Centre provides a modern, energy-efficient learning environment while supporting our ambitions to reduce carbon emissions across the county's estate."
Anna Dwyer, Deputy Head at St John the Baptist School, said: "The Aquinas Centre embodies everything we want education to be: inclusive, ambitious and rooted in the dignity of every young person. We recognised a growing need to provide enhanced support for students with the most complex SEND, ASD and SEMH needs, while ensuring they remain fully involved in the life of our school community, and the Aquinas Centre is designed to meet that need.
"This is not about creating a separate experience for our students, but a more inclusive one. Young people accessing the Aquinas Centre will remain full members of our school community, learning alongside their peers while benefiting from tailored support when needed. We are incredibly proud of what this will mean for current and future generations of students and their families."
SEND Inclusion Base at St John the Baptist School by TG Escapes Modular Eco-Buildings
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Sensory Room in SEND Inclusion Base at St John the Baptist School by TG Escapes Modular Eco-Buildings
Classroom in SEND Inclusion Base at St John the Baptist School by TG Escapes Modular Eco-Buildings
SEND Inclusion Base at St John the Baptist School by TG Escapes Modular Eco-Buildings
SEND Inclusion Base at St John the Baptist School by TG Escapes Modular Eco-Buildings
Reception in SEND Inclusion Base at St John the Baptist School by TG Escapes Modular Eco-Buildings
Life Skills Kitchen in SEND Inclusion Base at St John the Baptist School by TG Escapes Modular Eco-Buildings
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SEND Inclusion Base at St John the Baptist School by TG Escapes Modular Eco-Buildings
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Notes to Editors:
For more information about the project and TG Escapes, please contact Olivia Lott: liv@lakeviewdigital.co.uk
For Surrey County Council, please contact dutymedia@surreycc.gov.uk
Images are available in Google Drive.
The Aquinas Centre at St John the Baptist School represents a £3.6m investment and one of four projects TG Escapes delivered for Surrey County Council in a single 35-week programme (excluding landscaping). Beyond the new building itself, the works encompassed a comprehensive package of external infrastructure: new highways access and access road, EV-ready parking, playground-equipped landscaping, storm drainage, connecting utilities, safeguarding fencing and a bin store. Other recent TG Escapes x Surrey County Council projects include The Liz Kyriacou Building at Woking High School (£1.4m); a purpose-built facility for students with autism at Stepgates Community School (£1.5m); and a SEND unit at St Matthew’s CofE Primary School (£1.3m).
The DfE’s definition of an ‘inclusion base’ is “a dedicated space in a mainstream school that can offer specialist teaching or targeted support for children and young people with additional needs.”
Surrey Additional Needs and Disabilities Transformation
Surrey Inclusion and Additional Needs Partnership Strategy 2023 to 2026
Surrey’s Additional Needs and Disabilities (AND) Partnership - Surrey County Council
About TG Escapes
TG Escapes is an award-winning modular building manufacturer based in Coventry, UK, with decades of experience across the education, commercial, and sport and leisure sectors. Their core team of 25 offers a bespoke design service on every project, with a fully turnkey manufacturing process and a suite of sustainability commitments. Founded in 2003 by Richard Harvey, TG Escapes has completed over 800 projects, starting with sustainable garden office design and construction, before moving into the education and commercial sectors with specialist SEND classrooms, early years provision, sports halls and pavilions, and canteens. While their buildings have grown in scale, TG Escapes’ mission has remained the same: to create sustainable, positive spaces uniquely tailored to each client and prime for at least half a century of regular use.
In October 2025, TG Escapes was named the winner of the Education Modular Provider of the Year at the Education Estates Awards.
About St John the Baptist School
St John the Baptist School (SJB) is a thriving Catholic community school where academic excellence meets outstanding pastoral care. The school plays a leading role in educational development, working with the Xavier Teaching School Hub, Teach South East SCITT, Schools Alliance for Excellence (SAfE), and leading the North East Hants and Surrey Maths Hub. SJB became the first school in the country to achieve "transforming" status under the SSATs Framework for Exceptional Education across all twelve strands of practice.