Trafford has bought the former Loreto Prep on Dunham Road so North Cestrian can grow. The school already teaches 799 pupils in a building rated for 755.

Trafford Council has completed the purchase of the former Loreto Preparatory School site on Dunham Road, clearing the way for North Cestrian School next door to grow by up to 300 places. The council announced the purchase on Tuesday 11 August, five months after saying negotiations were under way.

A feasibility study is now running. The council says additional places are expected from September 2027, with completion of the permanent expansion currently estimated for September 2028.

Why an extra 300 places matters here

North Cestrian is already teaching more children than its building is rated for. The Department for Education’s Get Information about Schools record for the school puts its capacity at 755 and its number of pupils at 799, so it is running 44 over. It is an 11 to 18 mixed secondary that opened as a free school on 5 September 2016, which is why its trust describes 2026/27 as its tenth year, and it is part of The Hamblin Education Trust.

Up to 300 more places works out at two additional forms of entry, two extra classes in each year group, which the council set out in March when it confirmed it was buying the three acre site.

The pressure this is meant to relieve is documented on the council’s own admissions pages rather than in the press release. Trafford’s advice for Altrincham residents states that high schools in Altrincham are significantly oversubscribed and that each year some children from the catchment area do not get a place at their preferred schools. It names four high schools in Altrincham, and warns that families who do not list all their catchment schools have in previous years been allocated a place at Broadoak School, Lostock High School or Wellacre Academy instead.

The council also puts numbers on the squeeze for this September. It says it worked with secondary schools to secure 76 additional places in the Sale and Altrincham areas for 2026 and a further 85 across other Trafford high schools, and that 98.3% of on-time applicants were offered one of their preferred schools for 2026, up from 96.5% in 2025. Those places were negotiated with existing schools; the Dunham Road purchase is a different kind of move, buying land to build on.

Timeline of the former Loreto Prep site: closed July 2023, Trafford Executive agreed expansion spring 2024, purchase progressing March 2026, purchase completed 11 August 2026, extra places expected September 2027, permanent expansion estimated September 2028
The Loreto Prep site, from closure to the council's estimated completion date. Source: Trafford Council statements, March and August 2026.

What the council and the trust say

Cllr George Devlin, Trafford’s Executive Member for Babies, Children and Young People, said: “Our schools are the envy of the North West. That’s why so many people want their children to be educated here in Trafford. I’m delighted that we have made this purchase to help make sure more of our local children can go to an Altrincham school and get them the best start in life.”

Cllr Liz Patel, Executive Member for Economy and Regeneration, said the site “could have been lost to education in Trafford forever” without the council’s intervention.

Tim Gartside, chief executive of the Hamblin Education Trust, said the trust had shared the council’s view “that the former Loreto Prep School site should remain as a site for the education of Altrincham children”, and that the trust looked forward to working with the council “during this exciting phase of growth”.

Loreto Prep, an independent preparatory school, closed in July 2023. The council’s account is that its trustees, the Loreto Sisters, said it was no longer financially viable. Loreto Grammar School, a separate school, continues to operate further along Dunham Road, and published record A level results on Thursday.

What is settled and what is not

Settled: the council owns the site, the expansion is intended for North Cestrian, and the funding route the council named in March was a capital grant from the Department for Education. The council has not published what it paid.

Not settled: the design and therefore the timetable. The council’s March statement said the expansion remains subject to future planning permissions, and its August statement puts the scheme at feasibility stage, which comes before any application is drawn up. When a scheme for the site does reach Trafford’s planning register it will appear on our Altrincham planning news page. The September 2027 and September 2028 dates are the council’s current estimates, not commitments, and both sit behind a permission the council has not yet sought.

What it means for you

If your child is due to start Year 7 in September 2027, the extra capacity is described as “expected”, not guaranteed, so plan your application on the schools as they are today. Trafford’s advice is to name every catchment school on the form rather than pinning everything on one. Three of the four Altrincham high schools, Altrincham College, North Cestrian and Wellington School, allocate places on straight line distance from the school, so where you live does most of the work. Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College prioritises baptised Catholic children and asks for a baptismal certificate to be sent to the school directly.

If you live near the site, the thing to watch is the planning application, because that is the first point at which the layout, the buildings, the access arrangements and the parking become public and open to comment. The council has given no date for it.

If you are buying in the area, the council’s admissions advice is a more honest guide to school access than any estate agent’s catchment claim, and it is free to read. Our Altrincham house prices page covers what that demand does to what people pay.