Trafford Council has completed the purchase of the former Loreto Preparatory School site on Dunham Road - ending years of uncertainty over the three-acre plot and securing it for the expansion of neighbouring North Cestrian School.
The acquisition, funded by a Department for Education capital grant, will allow North Cestrian to add up to 300 secondary school places.
A feasibility study is now underway, with the first additional places expected from September 2027 and the full expansion complete by September 2028.
The deal was struck by Trafford's Development and Education teams working alongside Hamblin Education Trust, which runs North Cestrian.
It draws a line under a two-year campaign that began when Loreto Prep - an independent Catholic primary school with a 114-year history - unexpectedly closed in July 2023, citing declining pupil numbers and financial pressures.
Parents and local politicians feared the lucrative town-centre site would be sold for housing, prompting a petition that attracted over 1,300 signatures and a successful application to list the site as an Asset of Community Value.
Trafford's Executive formally agreed to pursue the purchase in spring 2024, with a projected cost of around £9m.
Cllr George Devlin, Trafford's Executive Member for Babies, Children and Young People, said: "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, added: "Without our endeavours, the site of the old Loreto School could have been lost to education in Trafford forever."
Tim Gartside, CEO of Hamblin Education Trust, said: "As North Cestrian School begins its 10th year as a free school we look forward to working with the Council during this exciting phase of growth so that all children from Altrincham can attend a local and highly successful school."
The purchase comes alongside wider progress on school places across the borough. Trafford's schools team worked with secondary schools to secure 76 additional places in the Sale and Altrincham areas for 2026, with a further 85 places added at other schools. As a result, 98.3% of on-time applicants were offered one of their preferred schools this year, up from 96.5% in 2025.
North Cestrian has long been the only non-selective secondary school in the WA14 area, and has been heavily oversubscribed for years. In a recent admissions cycle it received over 1,500 applications for just 165 places.
