The new school will be built under the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) with a very modest budget. The proposal involves a new two storey building to replace the SEN school and community pool, which currently occupy the site. Our challenge was to respond to the brief while making the very best use of the limited budget to deliver the best facilities possible for the school. Our solution is a simple, elegant two storey block, with the main entrance located at the centre of the plan, with a clear visual axis from the main site entrance.
The siting of the building has been carefully considered to reduce impact on the existing landscaping, tree positions, established external play space and to enable the phasing of the new build to impact on the existing school operation as little as possible during the works.
Internally the school will be organised into three Departments, consisting of EYFS and KS1 and 2, KS3 and 4, and KS5.
Departmental hubs are important in encouraging mutual learning and cooperation as they provide communal facilities that are shared across children of different ages.
Breakout rooms along with teaching spaces in wide circulation space will be used to enable small group and individual work. Art/ Music/ PE/Food Preparation will be taught discretely in specialist areas, with both Art and Food having capacity to contribute to enterprise learning. The Food base will be used regularly for meal preparation and give students the opportunity to serve peers and adults.
Sketch by Haverstock
