Education
Working with schools to transform the learning environment
‘Working with PTE has been one of the highlights of our project and the result has been spectacular.’ Phil Hopgood Assistant Headteacher Rushey Green Primary School
Contents 4
PTE and schools
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Putting schools at the heart of communities
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Working with young people
10 Designing for special educational needs 12 Adult & vocational education 14 Strategic options appraisals 16 Innovative funding solutions 18 Sustainability 20 Case Study 1 - Netley Campus 22 Case Study 2 - ARK John Keats Academy 24 Case Study 3 - Rushey Green Primary School 26 Case Study 4 - Tidemill Academy and Deptford Lounge 28 Case Study 5 - St Jude and St Paul’s CE Primary School 30 Case Study 6 - Westbrook Primary School 32 Case Study 7 - St Thomas’ CE Primary School 34 Case Study 8 - Richmond School Expansions 36 Case Study 9 - ARK Isaac Newton Academy 38 Case Study 10 - ARK Atwood Academy and Amberley Waterfront 40 Case Study 11 - St Paul’s Way School and Flats 43 Contacts
Cover image: Rushey Green Primary School
Left Junior Above: PTEOpen offices House at Diespeker Wharf, Islington
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PTE and Schools
Pollard Thomas Edwards (PTE) mends, transforms and creates residential neighbourhoods - and all the building types and outdoor spaces which provide a setting for successful communities, including schools. Our commitment to quality and innovation and our contribution to improving the life of whole communities has been rewarded with more than 150 design awards and a high level of repeat business. We are especially known for identifying opportunities on challenging and complex sites. Over the past few years we have used this skill to transform a series of urban and suburban primary schools. We have also come up with funding solutions – enabling schools to enjoy outstanding new buildings when governors had given up hope of obtaining public funding to do so. And we do this in collaboration with teachers, governors and Heads, and also with the children themselves, who come into our offices to learn about the design process and also to teach us about what they need to make a better school. We describe some aspects of our approach on the following pages, together with case studies of the schools which we have designed and built.
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Putting schools at the heart of communities
Making schools the focus of local communities PTE’s experience in large scale regeneration and urban design projects enables the practice to realise the full potential of schools to create cultural centres for the neighbourhoods which they serve. Schools are quite often the only public buildings in a neighbourhood. As such they need to be welcoming, have public presence and engender a sense of pride in the community. Opening schools up for community use The key is to design spaces which can be shared by the wider community out of school hours – for example creating a school hall/community space which can be separated off from the classrooms to provide easy access to the public whilst maintaining the security of the rest of the school.
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Integrating schools into mixed-use developments We have taken the integration of school and community uses one stage further by combining a new primary school with a state-of-the-art public library so that both enjoy a level of resourcing which they could not have achieved alone.
Opposite: after school games in the hall - St Thomas’ CE Primary School Opposite Top and Above: Public library - Deptford Lounge Right: enjoying the garden St Thomas’ CE Primary School
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Working with young people
Involving young people in the design of their own school As part of the design process we carry out workshops in schools and also regularly invite pupils to our office on the canal in Islington. Their exploration of our building, which we have converted from an old timber mill, provides a basis for getting the children to think critically about their existing school premises – and to discuss what spaces they would like to have in their new school. When we organised a workshop for staff and pupils of Tidemill Academy the day ended with the presentation of three design options to our young clients for the school dining room. The children voted unanimously for an elevated dining room leading out onto a roof terrace with access down into the playground below, and this now forms a key element of the final design.
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‘We have found PTE to be excellent communicators – effortlessly engaging young people in architectural exploration by means of talking, drawing, visiting and model-making. They are passionate about design and are adept at presenting challenging concepts to new audiences.’ Director of the Open House initiative
Working with young people in the wider community We actively support a number of initiatives to increase general awareness of design and construction in young people and to unlock the potential of architecture as an educational experience. Junior Open House introduces primary-age pupils to London’s architectural legacy by making partnerships between schools and architects. We have been involved for the last six years, and have hosted biannual workshops at our office and taken groups of school children on architectural tours. Accelerate into University! is a mentoring scheme for sixth form students at London state schools. It is delivered in partnership with Open City and UCL and is aimed at students from hard to reach backgrounds to support their ambitions to persue a career in architecture or the built environment. The programme offers structured work experience with a professional mentor and workshops focusing on the core design and presentation skills.
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Designing for special educational needs
Our experience has taught us that extensive consultation is key to understanding what works best for all users – students, teachers, staff, governors and their communities. Our design process is always informed and shaped by our engagement with stakeholders, to best understand the exact requirements of the students and the pedagogy of the school’s head and staff. This is especially true when designing buildings for children with special educational needs, whether Social, emotional, behavioural difficulties (SEBD) or Autism spectum disorder (ASD). Because the pedagogy of SEBD is largely based on a needs driven approach, students have a personal learning plans, which not only change over time as the student progresses, but also change as new students join the school. It is essential that we design buildings that can accommodate particular and personal needs, while providing an ordered physical framework to help moderate and encourage positive behaviours. The key issues for designing for these users, both SEBD or ASD, is the balance between nurture and discipline, freedom and control: creating safe but inspirational spaces which are robustly constructed, providing open spacious teaching environments but also ensuring security. Our recently-opened Netley Campus included both a primary school pupil referral unit (PPRU) as well as the refurbishment and landscaping of an existing ASD facility. From our experience, the following are key issues to consider in designing these special learning environments:
Top: Netley Campus PPRU included in main school building Above: Netley Campus ground floor - PPRU on southern side of lobby Opposite: Tidemill Academy access diagram
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Creating an inclusive, secure environment It is key to create a place that is both fit for purpose and enjoyable to use. At Netley a key design driver was to incorporate the PPRU within the new main building. It had a separate access point directly from the street, as well as access from the general entrance for the whole site. To maximise surveillance, all classrooms have glass screens into shared circulation spaces. Rushey Green school incorporates a hearing impaired unit (HIU) embedded in the fiirst floor of the school. Ensuring secure drop off At Netley we designed a dedicated lay-by near the school entrance so children can be escorted directly and safely into the building. The PPRU reception overlooks the street entrance and the main lobby so that staff can monitor pupils’ movements. Children then pass through a secure line into the PPRU itself, with another secure line beyond the reception as children move into the teaching areas. Westbrook School incorporates a unit for visually impaired children, with separate access for staff, parents and pupils in the unit.
Capacity to lock down or share areas after hours Many of our recent schools incorporate facilities that can be shared between the school and the wider community. In addition to providing safe, secure access for students during school hours, our entrance and management protocols at shared schools like Netley, Westbrook or Deptford’s Tidemill Academy allow for community access to halls (and services) outside of school hours. At Amberley Academy, the Westminster Adult Education Service provides vocational training in spaces above the main teaching areas, with a separate street entrance to allow access day and night. Materials and durability We always ensure that materials for our school schemes are both robust and joyful – and we understand that this is particularly true for SEBD and PRU premises. We are able to build on our experience of the Netley PPRU, where we incorporated details like toilet doors that staff can open from the outside.
Providing flexibility and time out spaces Creating spaces that allow for both class-based learning and individualised programmes is critical for working with children with SEBD. At Netley, all classrooms are designed to allow flexibility in use and to be adaptable to changing needs. Teaching areas all have spaces off the main classrooms which can be used as breakout spaces or for segregating disruptive pupils. In addition there are secure, calm rooms on both floors. Providing access to outdoors All main teaching spaces have direct access to outdoor learning and play spaces. The gardens and entrance to the existing ASD facility were redesigned to create a secure, calm, yet creative, play space for the children. Tidemill’s special education needs unit (SEN) is at ground floor with specially designated courtyards.
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Adult & vocational education
With our experience as school designers we have delivered schools which transcend the physical constraints of site to connect with the wider community. We also have particular knowledge and experience in the design and development education projects with multiple users.
The Netley Community Learning Centre is also part of the new building accessible to the community. It is an adult and family learning centre, providing courses to adults to support their children’s learning and also develop their own basic skills, such as ESOL or ICT skills.
Many of our recent projects incorporate shared facilities that are open to the local community, reinstating the school as the heart of the neighbourhood. Some of these projects are not just providing a community facility, but also enabling lifetime learning opportunities.
At our Amberley ARK Atwood Academy, the Westminster Adult Education Service provides vocational training from spaces above the main teaching areas, with a separate street entrance to allow access day and night. Westbrook school in Hounslow included spaces for practical and technical skills, with shared teaching spaces between classrooms that provide additional workshop space for technology or art activities.
This might mean providing offices for external specialists, who provide outreach education services to other schools or providers. At the recently completed Netley Campus, we included offices and teaching spaces for the Primary Learning Support Service who offer training to teachers and support staff in literacy, behaviour and special education needs policy and practice. The spaces we designed provided a home base for outreach workers, as well as carefully-designed spaces for pupils in the PPRU, some of whom are awaiting placement in special provision.
Vocational training often requires more robust and industrial spaces than typical classrooms, similar to the workshop spaces we have designed in two recent projects. The Deptford Lounge incorporated state-of-the art library and learning suites, as well as multipurpose artists’ studios and exhibition space to provide affordable space for creative businesses. We are currently working with Cell Project Space on a mixed use development in Hackney Wick, where flexible artists’ spaces. Those spaces include larger, robust areas for sculptors or painters, as well as ‘clean space’ provision for screen-based or multi-media disciplines.
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Top: Resolution Studios at Tidemill Academy Above: Hackney Wick proposals for flexible artists’ spaces Opposite: Netley Community Learning Centre
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Strategic options appraisals
Remodelling existing schools Education authorities are constantly reassessing their building stock and resources. In some areas refurbishment is the need; in others demographic changes mean schools have an opportunity to develop underused sites to cross-subsidise educational transformation on other sites. These appraisals are often complex and required within a very tight timeframe. For example, we carried out a series of options appraisals for schools within the London Borough of Richmond, looking at options which range from temporary classrooms to the permanent re-working of whole school campuses. PTE is worked within the Pick Everard multidisciplinary team, selected from the national Buying Solutions Framework, which is promoted by the Office for Government Commerce (OGC). This enables public and voluntary sector clients to select their design team without going through the costly and time-consuming OJEU process.
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Assessing alternative sites for new schools There is long-term pressure on school places throughout London. The latest school roll projections from the GLA show a need not only for remodelling and extending existing schools, but for the creation of whole new schools in some areas. For example, we are carrying out a study for one Inner London authority to help it to decide on where and how to create a new primary school, potentially combined with housing to create cross subsidy.
Building around occupied schools Strategic development plans almost always need to be implemented on an incremental basis whilst allowing the school to continue to operate smoothly. We have done this at St Thomas’ and at Rushey Green and we devised a carefully phased plan for rationalising and adding to the Netley Primary School campus.
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Innovative funding solutions
Despite increased government investment in school buildings in recent years (which is unlikely to continue at the same level in the future) many schools are unable to access funds, or they find the available funding is too uncertain, and insufficient to meet their aspirations. Most of PTE’s school projects include innovative mixed-funding solutions, making the most of the opportunities offered by the site and the brief. Building homes above schools This can be a very effective way to raise capital for new school buildings. It involves leasing out the ‘air-rights’ over the school rather than selling off precious land. Our approach maximises the space available to the school and helps to keep classrooms at ground level. It is also consistent with the government’s promotion of higher density, mixed-use development to encourage sustainable regeneration and to increase housing supply, including affordable housing for key workers – such as teachers.
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Top: St Jude & St Paul’s CE Primary School Above: St Thomas’ CE Primary School
Co-location funding Alternative sources of public funding can help to raise capital for school building. Co-locating schools with other community facilities, such as public libraries or health centres, can enable both institutions to draw upon a double funding stream and to share resources. This requires careful consideration of how the building will be managed on a day-to-day basis, which we have built into our design process. Innovative ideas for co-location can also bring additional funding in its own right – for example the Tidemill Academy and Deptford Lounge project won an additional £5m of DCSF funding for its imaginative integration of community facilities with a new school building. Converting redundant school buildings Although older school buildings (especially the Victorian Board Schools and their successors) can continue to make great schools, sometimes the most logical overall strategy is to declare them redundant and to raise funds through disposal to create new schools. PTE has carried out a series of feasibility studies and completed developments converting school buildings – including Listed Buildings – into award-winning homes.
Top, left: former school building - Croft Hall, Hastings Middle: former Listed school building converted into flats at Northcroft Court, Shepherd’s Bush Bottom: Tidemill Academy playground with Resolution Studios
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Sustainability
Designing sustainable schools New schools have to meet high environmental standards. The technical issues can be complex and confusing, but we can help to demystify the process and help schools to make informed choices. These range from strategic decisions – concerning massing, orientation, and renewable energies – to practical decisions - on the use of sustainable materials, methods of construction, mechanical systems and natural alternatives. Ecology and landscape We also bring sustainability into children’s everyday experience of school, for example by creating outdoor classrooms with raised planting beds irrigated with rainwater collected from the roof. On a tight urban site we have created a green oasis with a wildlife garden and pond, and on a larger suburban site we have built an outdoor grass amphitheatre completing the sloping sedum roof of the assembly hall.
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Long life loose fit What really makes school buildings sustainable is ensuring that they will be able to respond to an environment in which education practice and local needs will inevitably change. This requires schools to be flexible: to be able to accommodate a wide range of activities on a daily basis without cumbersome change to their configuration. They also need to be adaptable in the medium term so that the interior fit-out can be renewed or extensions added without undue cost or disruption. Ideally they should also be transformable over the longer term: so that they can be stripped back to their shell and completely refitted to suit future needs. So we like to think of schools in terms of ‘stage and scenery’: the stage comprises the relatively fixed and expensive framework of space, structure and services; the scenery is the furniture, fittings and equipment which may change and move quite frequently.
Opposite: creating sustainable spaces Left: making the home corner - Rushey Green
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Case Study 1: Netley Campus, Camden
Keeping the best and replacing the rest Netley School has multiple users on one site, including a mainstream primary school with a separate foundation unit, an autistic spectrum disorder unit, a Community Learning Centre (CLC), and a Primary Pupil Referral Unit (PPRU). This creates a complex site with many different buildings, some of which are not fit for purpose. The piecemeal development of the site has led to a confused and disorientating experience of arrival. Our masterplan will replace a number of buildings over time, improve access to the retained Victorian school, and reconfigure all of the external playspace. Each of the user groups will enjoy new facilities, arranged to encourage shared use of resources. The proposals will deliver immediate improvements - for example by providing outdoor playspace for the Primary Pupil Referral Unit – and also longterm phased transformation in response to the availability of funding.
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Three Heads one vision The heads of the school, PPRU and CLC each have specific needs, but they have collaborated with a joint vision for learning. We are working closely with them to ensure that the masterplan meets their individual requirements and also provides transformational change through collaboration and sharing. Client Value Dates Builder
London Borough of Camden ÂŁ26m (combined school and flats) 2008 - 2014 BAM Construction
Below: view of entrance to the Netley Campus Opposite top: aspiration diagram Opposite bottom: aerial view
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Case Study 2: ARK John Keats Academy Enfield PTE and Leadbitter/Bouygues have won a competition held through the Academies Framework to design a new academy on the site of the former Albany School, which dated from 1939. The vision for the school is for a new, allthrough academy made up of a nursery, a three-form-entry primary school; a six-form-entry secondary school; and a sixth form of up to 300 pupils. The piecemeal development of the original school buildings had resulted in an unsatisfactory layout, and some of these buildings are now in poor condition. Our approach has been to integrate the best of the existing buildings with larger scale new buildings to make a coherent whole, minimising complex and costly remodelling of existing facilities. We will retain the existing buildings which form the entrance wing and front-ofhouse, but add new distinctive entrances for the secondary school and primary school. A new central pavilion will replace an existing building which is no longer fit for purpose.
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This will form the centrepiece of the new school and will create two courtyards, reinstating the order and symmetry of the 1930s school. As well as a general refurbishment of the existing buildings, we will re-clad the sports hall – the most visible part of the school from the east of the site - in timber louvres and use it as an opportunity to signal the school from the approach across Albany Park. The primary section of ARK John Keats opened in September 2013, and the secondary section will open in 2014 with the project completing in 2015: the construction process has been carefully phased to allow continuous occupation of the school as pupil numbers expand.
Client Value Dates Capacity
ARK Schools ÂŁ14m 2013 - 2015 1860 pupils
Above: an integrated environment - western courtyard Below: new teaching pavilion - view from secondary entrance lobby Opposite: aerial view from south east
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Case Study 3: Rushey Green Primary School Lewisham Meeting aspirations as well as standards There was a clear need for a new school for Rushey Green. The original buildings dated from 1974 and were run down and cramped. The school wanted not only a BB99-compliant school, but had a specific list of additional aspirations which would not be provided by public funding: they wanted multiple hall spaces, additional small group spaces, staff offices and resource spaces, a music room, and enhanced furniture, fixtures and fittings. We helped to achieve this through a flexible and generous school design and a site strategy which freed a small, but valuable, area of land for redevelopment without losing any play space, thereby providing additional funding. Outdoor learning and play Four connected classroom blocks are angled in different directions to create a sense of enclosure and ownership of the outside space, which extends to form outdoor classrooms with allotment beds for the children to grow flowers, fruit and vegetables. An open-air grass amphitheatre is a highlight of the outdoor space, which also includes a wildlife area and orchard.
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Working around an occupied school At Rushey Green the development strategy enabled the school to function in its original buildings while new premises were constructed on site. The project was planned to allow the existing school to remain operational throughout the whole of the building programme. On completion the old school was demolished and its site transformed into landscaped play space.
Client London Borough of Lewisham and the staff, pupils and governors of Rushey Green School Value £8.5 million Dates 2007-2009 Capacity 470 pupils Builder William Verry Employers’ Agent Press and Starkey
When it became clear that it would be necessary to create accommodation for an additional form of entry, both LB Lewisham and the school were determined to re-appoint PTE. After a consultation process which included the Head, Head of Nursery, facilities manager, Chair of Governors and other governors, and Chair of the local residents’ association, we have obtained planning permission for additional classrooms and group spaces. Top left: outdoor playspace Top right: grass amphitheatre Right: front entrance Opposite top: wall graphics by PTE Opposite bottom: connected classroom blocks on green site
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3rd floor
Case Study 4:
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community offices
Tidemill Academy and Deptford Lounge Lewisham Benefits of co-location The new Deptford Lounge, consisting of a public library combined with a community learning and information centre, forms a single complex with the new Tidemill Primary Academy and provides a major civic focus for Deptford. This opens up opportunities for sharing spaces and resources, with consequent social and educational benefits as well as practical advantages for capital and running costs. The children’s library, main hall, refectory, kitchen and rooftop ball court are all shared with the community: they can be accessed either via the school, the library, or directly from the street. Working with multiple stakeholders Co-location can bring real benefits, but for it to work in practice, the requirements of the various user groups need to be carefully dovetailed. Our involvement extended beyond the design and delivery of the building to helping the various endusers to understand how best to use and manage the completed complex. Above: Exploded view of Deptford Lounge Below left: Outdoor playspace and planting garden Below right: Tidemill Academy rooftop ball court Opposite top: View of new school, Lounge and apartments Opposite bottom: Tidemill Academy and Deptford Lounge
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2nd floor 27
toilets and changing
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ball court
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community offices
1st floor 14
toilets
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main hall
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Studio
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music room
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food technology room
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meeting room 3
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meeting room 4
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meeting room 5
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meeting room 6
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meeting room 7
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toilets
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The Terrace room
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deck
image drawn by Alexis Butterfield, PTEa architects
ground floor 1
lounge recepetion
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library
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childrens’ library
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AccessPoint
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library computers
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cafe area and seating
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public toilets and baby change
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accessible changing facility
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childrens’ accessible toilet
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meeting rooms 1 & 2
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adult ICT
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young peoples’ ICT
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school library
Public face and private space Our design for the new school moves it from its original location and puts it at the heart of the community, with a formal entrance from a new public square with its market, café and the Lounge itself. By contrast the classrooms wrap around a secret courtyard garden, creating a safe and cloistered place in the heart of the city. Client London Borough of Lewisham and the staff, pupils and governors of Tidemill School Value Combined School and Deptford Lounge Project Costs: £21 million Dates 2006-2011 Capacity 470 pupils Builder Galliford Try Employers’ Agent Press and Starkey
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Case Study 5: St Jude and St Paul’s CE Primary School Islington Solving a problem of split sites This project shows how unexpected solutions can be found to seemingly intractable problems. We did not set out to build a new school at all – but we owned a potential housing site next to St Jude and St Paul’s, and as good neighbours we talked to them about our plans. In the process we learned about their problems, operating from a substandard multi-storey junior school with no decent outdoor space, and a separate infants’ school across the road. We ended up combining their site with ours, creating a complete new school at ground level and building flats over the classrooms to meet the Council’s housing requirement. The other site, now suplus, was let out to produce additional funding. Bringing together different agencies Unusually, PTE acted not only as architect, but also as co-developer. To make the project happen we gathered support from Islington’s Planning, Housing and Education Departments, the Housing Corporation and the DfES. We then helped to negotiate a tripartite development agreement between the Diocese (acting for the school), housing association and developer and set a precedent for others to follow. St Jude and St Paul’s now has a great new school which was featured in The Times Educational Supplement.
Key 2 Bed Flat Circulation for Flats School
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Building homes above a school The key to building flats above the school at St Jude and St Paul’s lies in the orientation of the school and the flats away from each other. The classrooms all have easy access to the playground side on the north while the apartments face south, away from the playground and noisier school activities - and the flats also have a completely separate entrance. We believe this scheme was the first of its kind, and the model has been taken up by several other schools.
Key Existing school buildings Proposed site for Section 106 housing Proposed site for new school
Opposite top: at work in the classroom Opposite below: section through site Top right: classroom interior Right: classrooms with flat balconies above Top left: dining hall Above: site plan
Client Harris Wharf Development Co Ltd (a joint venture between Groveworld Ltd and PTE Services), London Diocesan Board for Schools, staff, pupils and governors of St Jude and St Paul’s, Islington & Shoreditch Housing Association. Value £5m Dates 2001 - 2005 Awards Regeneration Awards 2005: Innovation of the Year Capacity 210 pupils Builder Llewellyn Roc Employers’ Agent Sawyer and Fisher
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Case Study 6: Westbrook Primary School Hounslow
PTE has designed completely new premises for Westbrook Primary School which will allow it to expand to accommodate three forms of entry while remaining in occupation throughout construction. The new school will overlook allotments to the north and outdoor play areas to the south, but its position on the edge of its site also ensures that the school can be easily used by the community both out of school hours and through controlled access during school hours – all three halls are close to the main public entrance and can be isolated from the main teaching areas. Classrooms are arranged in double year group clusters of six classrooms, and each cluster is grouped around an additional shared teaching space.
Client London Borough of Hounslow Value £8.9m Dates 2011 - 2014 Capacity 679 pupils Builder Galliford Try
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One of the principal challenges of the scheme is that it lies under the flight path to Heathrow and therefore needs to provide substantial acoustic protection. This is further complicated by the school’s brief to minimise energy use which makes it difficult to design a system which relies on mechanical ventilation. Our solution has been to propose an earth tube system which draws fresh air remotely from the building – which also provides a warming effect in cooler months and cooling in summer.
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Case Study 7: St Thomas’ CE Primary School North Kensington Funding a new school with a minimal grant St Thomas’ takes the prototype developed at St Jude and St Paul’s a stage further by providing over 80% of the total development costs of a whole new primary school by the construction of 69 apartments above it. The governors were concerned that the existing school, constructed in the early 1970s, fell well short of current standards and had twice submitted unsuccessful bids to the DfES for major capital funding. PTE was approached by the London Diocesan Board for Schools to design a self-funding proposal to rebuild St Thomas’. Places for People Group were selected as the preferred development partner to finance the combined school and residential development and to manage the flats, which are a mix of affordable and market homes for rent and sale. Meeting aspirations as well as standards The new school provides space standards 20% in excess of those required by BB99 – with three separate multi-purpose hall spaces; and a landscaped playspace and garden which forms an oasis in a very urban environment. All classrooms open onto this south-facing garden space.
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Personalised learning Education does not just take place in the classroom, and St Thomas’ shows how every part of its confined urban site offers a place for learning and play: from a corner of the garden, to a widening of the corridor and a top-lit bay in the dining room. Focus for the community St Thomas’ is designed to form a focus for the whole neighbourhood, with a central suite of halls and a group room which can be used by the community outside school hours. Access is direct from the street and designed to be inviting to local people while maintaining the security of the school. Client London Diocesan Board for Schools and Places for People Developments, staff, pupils and governors of St Thomas’ School Value £14m (combined school and flats) Dates 2003 - 2009 Awards Regeneration Awards 2005: Innovation of the Year Capacity 240 pupils Builder Mansell Employers’ Agent MDA
Key Teaching spaces Activity spaces Administration/staff spaces Circulation/ancillary spaces
Top: entrance to school Above: small group space within the dining hall Left: ground floor plan of school Opposite: children at play
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Case Study 8: Richmond School Expansions Richmond We worked with the London Borough of Richmond to accommodate increased pupil numbers in the borough - both in the short term for ‘bulge’ years, and in the longer term to carry out feasibility studies and masterplanning exercises to determine which schools could expand by further forms of entry. This involved carrying out a series of appraisals on five primary schools, looking at options which ranged from temporary classrooms to the permanent re-working of whole school campuses. On the basis of these studies we went on to carry out work on two schools, Buckingham Primary School and Heathfield Infant and Junior School, demonstrating that permanent facilities could be built adjacent to current facilities as part of the first phase of permanent expansion, rather than resorting to temporary additions as the client had originally anticipated. We also made the most of the opportunity to reconfigure existing spaces to give improved facilities – over and above the demands of the original brief.
Top and left: Greycourt School Opposite: Waldegrave School for girls, new teaching block
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In addition we carried out work on two secondary schools for Richmond, looking at each school as a whole to maximise the benefit which they could extract from their existing premises. At Waldegrave School for Girls we creatively remodelled existing unsatisfactory spaces and designed a new teaching block consisting of two flexible, linked laboratories, research areas and new general purpose classroom. This distinctly modern addition showcases science teaching and has transformed existing unpopular spaces. At Grey Court School, we have created a link between a Grade II listed building which houses AEN facilities, and the main body of the school. This takes the form of a raised timber deck with two glazed pavilions with green roofs at either end. We have also extended the existing learning resource centre with space for computer terminals and a café leading onto a terrace overlooking the school playing fields.
Client Value Dates
London Borough of Richmond upon Thames £1.0 - £1.5m (for each school) January 2011 - August 2011
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Case Study 9: ARK Isaac Newton Academy Ilford PTE has designed a new three-form-entry primary school in a gritty urban location on the site of the former Ilford Public Baths and next to an active fire station on Ilford High Road. The new primary school will be affiliated with the recently completed secondary school on an adjacent site to become an all-through Academy, and our design for the new primary school opens up the access to the site to provide a physical and visual link to the existing school.
Client Dates
Bouygues UK 2010 - 2014
Left: section through teaching block showing year progression Opposite, bottom right: appearance concept diagrams
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The new school is also designed to provide a buffer to the acoustic and visual impact of the adjacent fire station and the busy main road. The new buildings are arranged in an L-shape around the playground to provide a sheltered play space for the children. The double-height hall block overlooks Ilford High Road, with translucent cladding which will create a glowing beacon to mark the entrance to the academy and which extends to screen a rooftop open-air ballcourt.
The teaching block extends at right angles into the site, protecting the school from the adjacent fire station and overlooking the playspace. Classrooms are arranged in clusters of three per year group, each with easily accessed group rooms, WCs and storage. Ground-floor rooms all have direct access onto external learning space. The building’s orientation has been optimised to provide a building that is in the most part naturally ventilated, maximises natural daylight, and minimises energy use.
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Appearance - concept Base building
'Glowing' box
'Cut - outs'/ links
Landscape
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Appearance - concept Base building
'Glowing' box
'Cut - outs'/ links
Landscape
ARK ISAAC NEWTON PRIMARY ACADEMY // DIALOGUE MEETING 05 Š Pollard Thomas & Edwards Limited
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Case Study 10: ARK Atwood Academy and Amberley Waterfront Westminster On a tight urban site on the Grand Union Canal we are providing a combination of education facilities and high quality private homes for Westminster City Council. The site will provide a permanent home for the two-form-entry ARK Atwood Primary Academy and a satellite centre for Westminster Adult Education Services (WAES). The accommodation is provided within two new buildings on the site. The four-storey education building fronting Amberley Road will form three sides of a courtyard, with the nursery to the west and a raised school hall at first floor level to the west which will create a covered entrance to the playgound below. WAES will occupy the top floor and will have its own dedicated entrance from Amberley Road.
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A five-storey residential building with pop-up penthouses will overlook the canal. It will create 47 new high quality homes for Redrow with underground parking, including 18 one-bedroom flats, 25 two-bedroom flats and four threebedroom duplexes with roof gardens, all for private sale. The residential and educational buildings will enclose a school playground in the centre of the site. Planning permission has been successfully gained and the school will open in September 2014. Above: massing options Client Dates
Bouygues UK 2010 - 2014
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Case Study 11: St Paul’s Way School and Flats Tower Hamlets
PTE was commissioned by Poplar HARCA to carry out a feasibility study for a new two-form-entry primary school combined with mixed-tenure homes on a site in Mile End, East London. The site is part of the Burdett and Leopold Estate and is currently occupied by two residential blocks, a community centre which will be relocated, a small mosque, and parking and amenity space. In addition to providing a new school and homes, our appraisal also looked at options for retaining and replacing the mosque and providing some retail space on St Paul’s Way. Our proposals for the site include a new building fronting onto St Paul’s Way which would contain the school at ground floor level, as well provision for retail space facing the street, with residential accommodation on the first floor and above. The school is arranged in three wings leading off the main reception ‘hub’. Direct access to two separate outside play spaces at the centre of the site is provided from all of the classrooms. The main school hall, studio and kitchen are located to 40
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the south of the site in a single storey wing, which would have independent access to allow shared use of the facilities with the local community. As part of the proposal, we are looking to develop the single storey elements of the school using cross-laminated timber technology. Residential accommodation is provided above the school and to the south of the site, where there would be a number of duplex apartments with a new building for the mosque adjacent to this.
Client Poplar HARCA Value £16.5m Dates 2012 - 2015 Capacity 420 pupils Above: aerial view from north west on St Paul’s Way Opposite, top: aerial view from south Opposite, middle: key design principle diagrams Opposite, bottom: cross section through school/community hall
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Contacts
Dominique Oliver RIBA
Cathy Buckley RIBA CDA
Andrew Armes RIBA CDA
Dominique joined PTE in 2004, appointed Director in 2010 and became a Partner in 2014. Dominique leads the practice’s growing portfolio of projects in the education sector. She has special expertise in the co-location of schools with commercial, community and residential uses to generate mixed-funding and create thriving neighbourhoods. She is skilled at working with a wide range of stakeholders, encouraging contributions from all parties to unlock complex briefs and sites.
Cathy joined PTE in 2004, and became a Senior Project Architect in 2008 and an Associate in 2012. In this role she oversees the work of several project teams within the education sector and has been involved in a number of complex consultation programmes for education and mixed-use projects. Cathy is also an RIBA accredited Client Design Advisor.
Andrew joined PTE in 2008 after over ten years as Head of Development and Design in Milton Keynes, where he was responsible for over 75 education projects, sometimes as design team leader and sometimes as client. These included Oakgrove School, the first BREEAM Excellent secondary school to be constructed in this country. Andrew is an RIBA accredited Client Design Advisor.
cathy.buckley@ptea.co.uk
andrew.armes@ptea.co.uk
dominique.oliver@ptea.co.uk
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Diespeker Wharf 38 Graham Street London N1 8JX T 020 7336 7777 mail@ptea.co.uk @ptearchitects www.pollardthomasedwards.co.uk