[home] > [projects menu] > [education menu]

[click on images to view larger versions]

The School includes 14 classrooms, various dedicated and non-dedicated teaching spaces, a community room and Designated Special Provision Unit for the Northamptonshire Local Education Authority. Future Nursery expansion and car parking facilities are allowed for within the overall site.

The principle design intent is of six independently identifiable ‘blocks’ linked together by glazed corridors set upon a flat ground plane. Of these blocks four contain dedicated classrooms & ancillary spaces that are nucleated in plan and similar in shape, form and fenestration.

Each teaching cluster comprises four classrooms for two-year groups with associated specialist practical teaching rooms. These are arranged around an internal foyer with clerestorey glazing that is topped by a natural ventilation exhaust terminal.

The remaining two consist the largest and smallest blocks. The larger community block contains a multi use hall, studio, ICT suite, library and communal changing areas arranged around a ‘T’ shaped corridor. The smaller administration block forms the complex’s entrance and houses general staff teaching accommodation.

The scale, mass and form of each building block directly relates to the accommodation contained within each and affords a hierarchical arrangement of spaces, each accentuated by pyramidal, stepped and gabled roof shapes. The roof and wall planes include large glazed openings to maximise daylight on either the working plane or circulation space.

Possibly the biggest environmental challenge for the school was to meet the demanding ventilation requirements of DfES Building Bulletin BB87: Environmental Design for Schools, whilst at the same time meeting the newly introduced acoustic requirements of BB93. There is a potential conflict between natural means to ventilate classrooms and maintain acceptable internal acoustic conditions within the teaching spaces.

For the classrooms, a combined temperature and wind-driven natural stack effect ventilation system with passive noise attenuation measures at the air inflow and outflow positions was designed. The natural ventilation design was validated at an early stage by physical scale modelling of the modes of air flow at the BP Institute, which is a department of the University of Cambridge. The school is believed to be one of the first new primary schools in England to meeting the requirements and intent of both BB87 and BB93.

Client: The Diocese of Peterborough Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon LLP Structural & Civil Engineering Consultant: Hannah Reed & Associates Ltd Services & Acoustic Consultant: Max Fordham LLP Landscape Architect: Jo Morrison Contractor: Mansell Construction Services Ltd Completion: 2006 Contract Sum: £4.3million