Education Brochure

About us Education

Haverstock is an architectural practice that puts people first. Our buildings are designed to enhance people’s lives, and in their own small way, make the world a better place. For us, the process of architecture is collaborative and democratic - we want clients and people who use the buildings to have a voice, and to shape the way their building ends up. We strive to ensure our buildings improve all our lives and our communities and we strongly believe that modern buildings should be inclusive and accessible for all.

We focus on using fresh eyes and lateral thinking to tackle varied and complex briefs. With over 40 years’ experience, we’ve designed buildings of all kinds: schools (children’s centre/primary/secondary/ sixth form), specialist schools (SEND all through/resource provisions/ alternative provisions/pupil referral units), colleges, offices, police facilities, places of worship, crematoria, supported living, conservation and housing.

Our team is made up of proactive design professionals with complementary skills and experiences to ensure a unique and creative solution to all projects. As well as architectural, we also provide client design advisor services, technical guidance, design review and access consultant services. We work on projects throughout the UK, including London, Hereford, Leominster, Solihull, Shropshire, Essex, Bristol, Northampton, Birmingham, Dover and Kent.

We’ve won our fair share of awards, but what’s more important to us is that our contribution makes a real difference to the people who cross the threshold every day.

Haverstock Technical Advisor

Haverstock have been appointed on numerous technical advisor roles across the UK:

• Redbridge Special School, London - London Borough of Redbridge and Gleeds

• Fenstanton Primary School and Lambeth Academy, London - London Borough of Lambeth

• Lilian Bayliss Secondary School and autism resource unit, London - London Borough of Lambeth

• King’s College London Maths School, London - EFA and Gleeds

• Westside (Alternative Provision) Free School, London - EFA and Turner and Townsend

• City Gateway (Alternative Provision) Free School, London - EFA and Turner and Townsend

• Alperton Community School (Secondary), London - Academy working directly for the school

• North Kingston Free School (Secondary), London - EFA and Turner and Townsend

• Wells Free School, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent - EFA and Turner and Townsend

• Shorefields SEND school, Essex - Essex County Council

• Edith Borthwick SEND school, Essex - Essex County Council (Part of PSBP East Batch)

• De La Salle Secondary School, Essex - Essex County Council

• Garston Manor SEND school, Hertford - Hertfordshire County Council (Part of PSBP East Batch)

• St. Andrews Academy, Enfield, Gleeds

• The Beeches PRU, Medway, Gleeds

• Inspire Academy, Medway, Gleeds

• St. Andrews Primary, Kent, Gleeds

• Bedford Free School, Bedford, Gleeds

• Cobham Free School, Cobham, EFA and Gleeds

• Beacon College, Hereford, EFA and Gleeds

• Brookfield SEND School, Herefordshire County Council

• Hove Valley Cullum Centre, Brighton and Hove Council, National Autistic Society

• Ashmead Primary School, Engie and London Borough of Lewisham

• Fox Crescent SEND School, Gleeds, EFA and Essex County Council

• Hawthorns SEND School, Gleeds, EFA and Essex County Council

• South Gloucester SEND School, EFA and Gleeds

• Southwark PRU, Tim Ronalds and London Borough of Southwark

• Meadow SEND School, London Borough of Hillingdon

• Hedgewood SEND School, London Borough of Hillingdon

Haverstock Social Value

A key part of our company approach is to embed social value at the heart of the practice. All members of the studio undertake volunteer roles throughout the year working in similar environments to the ones we design so they have first hand experience of the end users needs.

We carried out a creative workshop with the children of The Hawthorns School to design and build their own imaginary school out of old cardboard packaging and other recycled materials. Each architect worked one on one with a child, to suit their needs and capabilities. Across the day, we engaged with more than 12 students and built an entire town with several schools, a train station and a hospital. We also played with the children during their break time – building forts, drawing in chalk and opening up their bug hotel. The Hawthorns School is a new build school for students with Autism that we are currently designing.

Interestingly Different are a social enterprise who sell beautiful gifts and household goods produced by partners who employ people with learning difficulties, autism, disabilities or life challenges. They wanted to create a place to showcase the products made by their trainees to be front and centre in their community. Our studio worked with their team to design and build their new shop to display these wonderful products.

Haverstock Social Value

Taking part in a work experience event with ISG and Woodlands Meed College. The new build college that is currently on site is for students with a wide range of physical and learning disabilities. We had a fun day onsite building and testing bridges. There were some amazing creations!

We’re really pleased to have been able to support the collaboration between Hovia and The National Autistic Society. Together they have curated a range of wallpaper designs catering for individuals with hypersensitivity. Refreshing to see such high quality design finishes that consider the built environment from a perspective inclusive of individuals with autism.

One of our architects had the exciting opportunity to spent a month in Zambia helping to build a new kindergarten with CAUKIN Studio. With 15 other volunteers, and a number of local Zambian workers, time was spent brick laying, block laying, fabricating steel doors, windows and roof trusses, setting out brick columns and mixing concrete (by hand!) Being away for a month allowed the team to integrate in to Zambian life and close bonds were formed with each other and the Zambian workers, who welcomed everyone in to their homes and families with lots of food, dancing and laughter. The new kindergarten will allow students to access education from a younger age.

Haverstock Social Value

We were lucky enough to volunteer at The National Autistic Society, Starshine for Autism Christmas carol concert. It was a wonderful evening set in the beautiful St. Clement Danes Church. A fantastic festive time was had by all to raised funds for the charity.

Taking part in a work experience event with ISG and Woodlands Meed College. A new build college that we are currently working on, for students with a wide range of physical and learning disabilities. We used the new college construction site as a learning environment and placement to help prepare and support students for their life journey post college. Our session was titled “What is an Architect” and included discussing what an architect does day to day, elements of a construction project, talking about the new college building, exploring materials, sketching and some model bridge building.

ONELAB College is an amazing further education college that was designed to educate and train young people with special educational needs and disabilities ages 16 - 25 to discover their voices and places in this world through #Design, #DigitalMedia and #Entrepreneurship within a design studio environment, preparing learners for the world of work within the creative sector. ONELAB College students discover their voices through art, design and digital media in an immersive four year programme. We had a fantastic time working together to achieve ideas for a new showroom space and shop.

Haverstock Social Value

We assisted with a Year 10 lesson for the next generation of design professionals. Heathcote School along with the ‘class of your own’ initiative have developed a great brief for a special needs provision, and we were on hand to assist with design, the role of the architect in the profession and answering tricky questions on briefing considerations! It was great to be involved and look forward to a repeat visit to see how the designs are progressing.

Our Barn Community are a community-based charity providing learning, life skills and social interaction for young people aged between 16 to 35 with learning disabilities or autism. Our Barn have an incredible garden and allotment which provides life skill and social activities to the young people there. We spent the day doing some of the heavy lifting in laying new paths to make the garden more wheelchair accessible, and rebuilding fences, alongside some of the wonderful staff and young people. Hopefully we’ll be back to do some more work with them and meet some more of the fantastic people who benefit so much from a beautiful setting and a fantastic charity.

Some of our architects were lucky enough to have joined Studio 306 Collective CIC in their metalwork workshop. The aim of the studio is to empower disadvantaged local individuals by offering a creative space for those who are recovering from mental illness. Here they can rediscover forgotten skills, develop new ones and boost their confidence within a working environment. Studio 306 Collective CIC is a not-forprofit organisation, so every penny made from the sale of their products goes back into supporting the project.

Architectural Services

Early Years Primary Secondary Sixth Form College

Agar Children’s Centre

London, £2.2M

Client: London Borough of Camden

A new build children’s centre providing 66 day care places and community facilities. The design is articulated as two elements fused together with a central courtyard. The design embodied Reggio Emilia principles of educating allowing children control over the direction of their learning. This was achieved by creating learning spaces that allow free and safe movement from inside to external play areas and into an interactive circulation space.

Civic Trust Award Special Recognition, 2010

Camden Building Quality Award, 2009

BCSE Industry Award for Inspiring Design, Finalist, 2009

Albion Primary School London,

£17M

Client: London Borough of Southwark

The new build school was completed while the existing school was in full operation. The design of the school is set around a “heart space” an added value space for the school which can be used for break out from lessons, intervention, breakfast club and after school club and generally to support all learning. The “heart space” also contains a feature staircase specifically for the children to enjoy.

Classrooms are arranged in two clusters around the “heart” and have been designed with interactive circulation spaces with group rooms, breakout areas and shop fronts announcing the entrance to the classrooms. The clusters respect the ages of children from nursery through to year 6 with varying arrangements to offer a true “rite of passage” as the children progress through the school.

Civic Trust Awards Regional Finalist, 2019

New London Architecture Awards Education Category, Finalist, 2018

Local Authority Building Control Excellence Award, Winner, 2018

“Working with Haverstock has been an absolute delight, the model of working that has developed with your team, the contractors and us as a school has enabled us to feel confident that our new building will be one that achieves our very high expectations and will be an inspirational learning environment for our children. From the very beginning of our working relationship, your team have listened to and respected our professional input and our feedback has been observed.”

Penny White Head teacher

Tufnell Park Primary School London, £13M

Client: London Borough of Islington

The new build primary school is our first fully off-site construction building. The project was extremely complex due to the site constraints and the phasing strategy of phased demolition and construction, to keep the existing school in operation throughout the works. The modules were delivered and installed within 5.5 weeks.

The new building now gives the school a rich visual and civic presence. The brickwork façade incorporates concrete banding details, large windows and laser-cut fretwork screens. The bespoke laser cut screens were inspired by the Victorian stucco detailing of the neighbouring buildings. The school received BREEAM Excellent.

Civic Trust Award Regional Finalist, 2021 SPACES Yearbook, Finalist, 2021 New London Architecture Awards Education Category, Finalist, 2020

“From the outset, the process was one of consultation and collaboration. Haverstock went out of their way to establish a deep understanding of our context, our community and our vision. At each stage, they presented us with a range of creative options to explore further, ensuring final decisions and solutions were well considered, and always driven by the needs of the school. We now have a building that functions extremely well and provides the purposeful, exciting and aspirational environment our children and families deserve.”

Martin Scarborough Head teacher

Moreland Primary School London,

£10.3M

Client: London Borough of Islington

New build primary school with nursery and children’s centre. The new school has not only resulted in a state of the art education facility, but has enriched the wider community. The new school includes recreation, training and support facilities, designed and mapped to meet the needs of the local residents. Whilst the old school sat back from this building line and did not express a street presence, the new school design is bold and infills this missing gap.

The high quality, robust, brick façade adds a richness of quality to the urban fabric and gives Moreland Street a new street frontage. The aesthetic of the building strived to have a civic language and presence, through colourful fins, while still expressing the playful nature of a primary school setting.

AJ Architecture Awards, Finalist, 2017

Brick Awards, Finalist, 2017

Local Authority Building Control, Best Educational Building, Finalist, 2017

The Belham Primary School London, £10.3M

Client: London Borough of Southwark

New build extension and refurbishment of primary free school. At its heart, the scheme centres around the sensitive restoration of the Grade II Listed Old Bellenden Primary school. This project balances the needs of conservation, development, sustainable design, stakeholder engagement and outstanding architecture for the benefit of its diverse and creative community.

We have been able to cleverly knit a three storey contemporary extension, to fulfil the client’s brief and deliver an exceptionally high quality modern learning environment. The extension has minimised the impact on external space while also integrating innovative roof terraces at different levels to maximise external learning opportunities for the children.

Civic Trust Awards Regional Finalist & Selwyn Goldsmith Awards for Universal Design Regional Finalist, 2019

SPACES Refurbishment School Award, Winner, 2019

New London Architecture Awards, Commendation, 2019

BD Architect of the Year Awards, Finalist, 2019

AJ Architecture Awards School Project of the Year, Finalist, 2018

AJ Retrofit Awards Schools Category, Finalist, 2018

“From the off, I felt that I was working as part of team -they listened to what my educational vision was, what was essential to delivering a creative, innovative education for young Londoners, and responded with imaginative and inspired design solutions.”

Sonia Case Executive Head teacher

“The result has been the creation of a stunning new school; the existing listed building has been reinvigorated following years of decline, and augmented with a modern extension to provide an elegant and sympathetically designed scheme that seamlessly blends old and new to great effect. The result is a building that the borough can be truly proud of.”

Andrew Brown London Borough of Southwark

Robert Browning Primary School London, £6.5M

Client: London Borough of Southwark

Extensive refurbishment and extension works while remaining fully operational throughout. We re-organised the school and created a new sports hall, dining hall and kitchen within a new build extension, increasing the size of each space to suit the larger cohort of children. In doing so, we were also able to provide a valuable new roof terrace maximising external play on the site.

The terrace includes high quality, flexible, all weather external curriculum teaching space with covered areas and a mixture of surfaces including artificial grass. Redesigning of the existing and new external areas provide a diverse and age appropriate range of landscape solutions, and which maximises the use of external space on what is a tight urban site.

The Harpenden Academy

Hertfordshire, £4.5M

Client: Department for Education

Expansion to form a 2FE Primary School. A two-storey extension was carefully designed to echo the gables and pitches of the existing building and to complement the surrounding conservation area context. It was sensitively refurbished throughout with some contemporary features introduced. The extension adjoins the existing building and wraps around the north-eastern side of the site to form a protected, central, mounded playground.

This new building and courtyard addressed both a severe 3m level change across the site and acoustic concerns brought by a bordering high-speed railway line. It houses 8 classrooms for the upper school as well as a spacious double height hall, which forms the heart of the school both during the school day and after hours when it can be hired out for community events.

Harpenden Society Certificate of Merit, 2016

Pelham Primary School London, £5M

Client: London Borough of Merton

Expansion to form a 2FE Primary School. The challenge of the project was to provide the additional capacity in a way that optimized internal area whilst mitigating the effect on external play space. To ensure the needs of students and staff were at the heart of key decisions. The three-storey extension provides optimum use of the confined site and provides secure play areas within the courtyard.

The challenge of the project was to provide the additional capacity in a way that optimized internal area whilst mitigating the effect on external play space. The school was developed with a passive and sustainable environmental strategy, using natural ventilation to cool and regulate the building structure.

Rockcliffe Primary School London, £650K

Client: London Borough of Greenwich

The new standalone building includes teaching spaces for nursery, reception classes and a whole school SENCO/music room. The building uses a simple form and traditional building techniques to provide an inspiring learning environment. Each classroom opens directly onto covered play spaces, which promotes the schools ‘open door’ policy. The design utilises innovative timber panels for the main structure.

The panels were produced off site and delivered pre installed with insulation. Internally the spaces enjoy dramatic ceiling heights, with rooflights bringing lots of daylight into the heart of the playspaces. Externally we have used black stained timber cladding. As a learning tool the building is decorated with full scale animal silhouettes.

Hollymount Primary School London, £5.1M

Client: London Borough of Merton

Expansion to form a 2FE primary School. The design responds to the constraints of site access, overlooking from adjacent properties and the abundance of existing mature trees present. The two-storey extension adjacent to the existing teaching accommodation, creates a new double height gallery space between the buildings. The new two storey extension adjacent to the existing teaching accommodation, creates a new double height gallery space between the buildings.

This top light space is envisaged to develop a new heart to the school and develop further the school’s curriculum use of breakout and flexible learning spaces outside of the formal classrooms. Natural light and a passive environmental strategy have been developed from the conceptual design stages to create bright and open circulation spaces and achieve excellent levels of thermal comfort and daylighting in classrooms.

Wimbledon Chase Primary School London,

£4.7M

Client: London Borough of Merton

Expansion to form a 3FE primary School. The key to this scheme was a simple rationalisation of key stage groupings across the existing accommodation, with local provision of resource and play areas, and a coordinated access strategy. These changes were facilitated by the addition of a two storey wing that compliments the existing long frontage of the neo-Victorian school building.

The new wing expresses the local dialect of gable and window proportions and reinterprets these into a sophisticated yet modest masonry building; a delicate approach to the interface with existing buildings provides an opportunity to draw light and interest into circulation spaces. Natural cross ventilation is achieved through automated high-level glazing and the fenestration strategy ensures a level of uniform natural light. The building achieved BREEAM very good.

Civic Trust Awards, Regional Finalist, 2013

BCSE Best of British Schools Award, Finalist, 2012

Riverside Primary School London,

£6M

Client: London Borough of Southwark

New build and refurbishment of an primary school and nursery. The grade II listed Victorian school building is to be carefully adapted and extended to suit contemporary teaching methods and standards for the 21st century. The proposed works include constructing a new Teaching, Entrance and Kitchen/Dining Block, refurbishing the east corner of the school and implementing a new landscape design across the site.

Each of the builds have been designed as single storey blocks as a response to the existing school. The landscape design has been developed to integrate the new buildings within an enhanced outdoor learning environment. The works are proposed to be phased in three stages; the Teaching Block within the first and followed by the Entrance Block and the Kitchen & Dining Block and landscape forming the final phase.

Architectural Services

Secondary

Sixth Form College

Highdown School Reading, £2.5M

Client: Reading Borough Council

Highdown School was the only school of its size in the country without a dedicated assembly hall. We designed a multifunction hall, drama studio, main foyer, changing rooms and associated ancillary accommodation. The existing school buildings comprise four Grade II listed buildings, the 18th Century Mansion House, Stable Block, Barn and walled garden together with more recent extensions.

The new hall is capable of accommodating 1000 standing students for a whole school assembly, 600 seated spaces for performances and half school assemblies, 200 students for examination purposes and a drama studio. The new facilities also enhance and develop the drama and performing arts curriculum.

Stanley Park School Sutton, £35M

Client: London Borough of Sutton

New build 7FE school accommodating 1150 secondary places with a 350 place sixth form college and a co-located 91 place provision for students with autism. The design resulted in three main curriculum groups, translated into three major zones or ‘schools’ within the building (World, Performance and Trade).

Additionally, the autism department is housed in the Horizon School, and forms the fourth equal part of the overall school. All four schools are visually and physically linked through a central atrium known as the learning street, which acts as the heart space of the school and the ‘glue’ that encourages a strong and unified identity for the whole school.

Civic Trust Award, Regional Finalist, 2013

New London Architecture Awards, Winner, 2012

Education Business Award Best Building, 2012

PFS Excellence in BSF Awards for the Most Versatile Learning Environment, Finalist, 2009

Parliament Hill School London,

£5M

Client: London Borough of Camden

New build performing arts building. The building is a three story structure housing music, media studies, drama, dance and film studies together with strategic practice rooms, offices and editing suites and an EAL area (English as Another Language).

New build Design and Technology Studio. The building contains three design and technology studios, a specialist computer design facility and ancillary facilities with an area for student services. It enhances the existing courtyard space with a single storey curved green roofed building.

The Bishop of Winchester Academy Bournemouth,

£12M

Client: Balfour Beatty

School expansion, 1250 secondary school students and a 200 place sixth form. The solution was to analyse and retain parts of the existing school building and provide a new build intervention that would give the desired accommodation, reinvent the image of the school and act as the glue to bind the retained disparate elements of the school. The extent of the refurbishment ranged from light touch to heavy remodelling but the overall aim was to give equality to all spaces.

Together with the core teaching spaces the school provides opportunities for real life enterprise. We created spaces for a retail environment, catering and incubators units therefore offering students direct vocational experiences with professional start up companies. A cafe space off the main dining space offered an alternative dining experience for 6th form students. The completed building also provided a new MUGA, sports hall and performance spaces.

The Academy was officially opened by HRH The Princess Royal.

The King Edmund School Essex, £12M

Client: Kier/DfE

The King Edmund School is a 9 Form Entry academy Secondary School including a 400 place sixth form. The school has a strong vocational offer and offers community use of the site. The proposed building replaces the schools temporary accommodation which includes the reception, main hall, gym, changing rooms, specialist and general classrooms but does not increase the maximum number of pupils on roll at the school.

The new building design is a simple two storey linear building that aims to binds the campus by enforcing the courtyard as the heart of the school with new circulation routes and external eating areas. The project brief has advanced sustainability outputs including solar fins to the long elevations, MVHR units to all learning spaces, user control natural ventilation and incorporation of a combined PV green roof.

Earl Mortimer College Herefordshire, £20M

Client: Herefordshire Council

New-build 900 place secondary school and a 120 place sixth form centre serves the market town of Leominster and the rural community. The College has a sports specialism and this is used by the whole community. The School’s social heart space is a double height ‘street’, which has many uses; eating, performing, teaching, learning and socialising. This space is light and welcoming filled with student display, with facilities off it such as the community theatre and studio hall.

Suspended over the dining zone of the street is the learning heart of the school and we have coined this space as the ‘Learning Lantern’. The Learning Lantern accommodates the Learning Resource Centre on the first floor and the Sixth Form Centre is located on the top floor, with varied learning areas. In addition to the passive and low carbon design principles, the design included wind technology.

Architectural Services - SEND

Autism

Resource Provision

Pupil Referral Unit

Social, Emotional and Mental Health

Profound Multiple Learning Disability Complex Needs

Kentish Town Primary School London,

£2.3M

Client: London Borough of Camden

Extension and major refurbishment to provide a new inclusive resource provision for children with autism. The approach to the design respects the existing Victorian brick building by replicating similar forms and by using traditional materials but reinventing it all in a contemporary way. Extra care was taken to bring the new and the old building together sensitively.

The existing spaces within the school were re-organised alongside the provision of the new accommodation to provide a clear clustering strategy to all year groups and to offer increased clarity to the school layout. This addressed the critical issues with the existing school design including back log maintenance and also allowed for clear age progression, generous circulation and improved environmental conditions to all class bases.

Columbus Primary School

Essex, £6.6M

Client: Essex County Council

Refurbishment for students aged 3 -13 with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), severe learning disabilities (SLD), moderate learning disabilities (MLD) and autism. The extension and refurbishment re-organised the various elements into clearly legible wings.

The central “Jungle” – so called because of its height, distinctive bamboo graphics on the glazing, and columns with special sensory textures provides a street space that unifies the school, bringing together the different wings with a central focus.

Civic Trust Awards Commendation, 2013

“The new educational campus has made Columbus School and College a landmark building. We believe the reason for this is that the design provides a premier experience for all who enter or view the building. Their presence lifts the community environment through the use of simple, natural materials, and gives a ‘wow factor’ to viewers.”

Malcolm Reeve Academies Enterprise Trust

The Livity School London, £10M

Client: London Borough of Lambeth

New build school for 90 students aged 3 - 11 with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) and autism. The school operates over three floors as a result of the site constraints and in order to maximise external play space. The floors are linked with staircases, lifts and a unique ramped elevated walkway which offers 360 degree views of key areas, enabling the children to be fully integrated into all aspects of school life.

The first floor accommodation is cantilevered dramatically over the ground floor along three facades providing much needed covered drop-off, car parking and play space. The stainless steel cladding to the first floor consists of perforated panels that spell out ‘LIVITY’ in Braille across the elevation.

Civic Trust Awards, Winner, 2014

Best Educational Building at LABC Building Excellence Awards, 2014

Knowle DGE Learning Centre

Bristol, £15M

Client: Bristol City Council

The new build school for 152 students aged 7 - 18. Knowle DGE is a unique learning environment with a whole new concept in motivating and inspiring young people with moderate learning difficulties (MLD), social emotional mental health (SEMH), autism and residential provision. We sought to break down the accommodation to create smaller key stage clusters with common rooms at their heart.

The wider landscape creates different areas for learning through landscape including sporting facilities, allotments, wood craft areas, mountain bike tracks, performance spaces together with a geodesic greenhouse. The Learning Centre also house a real life working wing with a café, shop, car mechanic workshop, construction training area, catering kitchen and manufacturing opportunities.

Civic Trust Awards Regional Finalist, 2012

BCSE Industry Award for Excellence in design for teaching and learning: Special Educational Needs, Finalist, 2011

“Our architectural design partners, Haverstock allowed us to wish, allowed us to close our eyes and dream. They involved all stakeholders in this and made all feel equally important, not least the young people themselves. Once they had bottled our dreams and wishes they set energetically about doing their level best to fulfill them. Crucial to the whole design-build process was the architect’s skills in listening to our needs, our previous frustrations and good ideas we have seen. They showed an uncanny ability to read our minds and see what we saw. Throughout the whole process the Haverstock team maintained regular, close liaison and became as impassioned about the projects as we were. On the day we opened as a new community Learning Centre, colleagues and children cried. Their dreams had come true, and they really had been given the chance to become whatever they wanted to be.”

Peter Evans Head teacher Retired

Salmon’s Brook School London, £9.8M

Client: London Borough of Enfield

New build school for 70 students, including sixth form aged 11 - 18 with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH). The aim of the school will be to provide a suitable environment with a high level of therapeutic support and excellent teaching. Students safe guarding is a key design element, resulting in the need for single storey only accommodation, and a dedicated and managed secure student drop off and pick up at the front of the school.

Education will be personalised to each student, with an emphasis on supporting transitions to life beyond schooling and becoming integral members of their community. There was an importance to construct a secure building, but also to create a nurturing environment for students.

Forest Bridge School Windsor & Maidenhead,

New build school for 96 students aged 4 - 16 with autism. The new school provides an exemplar environment with a high level of therapeutic support and excellent teaching to allow students with autism to achieve their full potential and to make the most of their intellectual ability, focus and skills.

£7.2m

The school has been designed intelligently to enable each child to have a rite of passage, given they may potentially be taught at the school for their full education. The design identifies the primary and secondary school as two individual wings, forming a courtyard, with the central wing containing shared, specialist and administrative facilities.

Client: Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead

Columbus College Essex, £9.8M

Client: Essex County Council

New build for students aged 11 - 19 with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), severe learning disabilities (SLD), moderate learning disabilities (MLD) and autism. We worked with the client group to create solutions which would allow the students to play an integrated role in society throughout their lives at the school, college and beyond.

A range of social and personalised learning areas are provided at ground and first floor level in and around the atrium. At the front the new college creates a large community square known as “Columbus Square”. This provides a space for the local community to celebrate, to eat, drink, sit, meet, hold events and enjoy in the community cafe, hall and library provisions on the site.

Civic Trust Awards Commendation, 2013

Alexandra Centre London, £5.5M

Client: London Borough of Camden

New build and refurbishment for students aged 16 - 25 with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), severe learning difficulties (SLD) and autism and providing residential and respite. Based in the Grade IIlisted former Jack Taylor school on the Alexandra Estate, The Alexandra Centre provides learning, multi-agency health, therapy preparing students for semi-independent living.

The refurbished building and new accommodation provide Camden with a vital facility to meet an extremely challenging brief. The project sought to adapt the existing building for modern flexible teaching methods with a greater emphasis on technology. A single storey, prefabricated timber ‘Passivhaus’ has been introduced to the site to provide the living accommodation.

AJ Retrofit Awards Education Category, Winner, 2018

AJ Architecture Awards, Finalist, 2017

New London Awards Education Category, Finalist, 2017

“Considerable care and understanding was shown in consulting with the college and the wider community and in transforming the existing listed building into a facility that meets the needs of our young people in the 21st Century. Their passion and commitment was remarkable given the many challenges faced in restoring and adapting the building and providing the new Passivhaus short breaks units on the site.”

Fiona Dixon London Borough of Camden

Sir Geoff Hurst Academy

Essex, £10M

New build 64 place school for students aged 7 - 16 with complex and severe social emotional and mental health (SEMH). The new school will be a single storey building with associated landscape works and car park/ student drop off, and will also include a separate residential accommodation for 15 students. We are working closely with the school team to ensure the brief caters to the needs of their students, while also providing flexibility for the future.

The varied age range of the students, which can change year on year, prompted the classrooms to be split into different groupings. This also facilitates a sense of progression through the school, as classrooms for each key stage will have a different aspect and feel. Equal access to the specialist teaching spaces and sports facilities from the classrooms further improves this flexibility.

Client: Kier/DfE

The Hawthorns School Essex, £10M

New build school 70 place school for students aged 7 – 16, with complex autism. The single storey building with associated landscape works and car park, student drop off will also include residential accommodation for 10 students. The varied age range of the students, which can change year on year, prompted the classrooms to be split into different groupings. This also facilitates a sense of progression through the school, as classrooms for each key stage will have a different aspect and feel.

Equal access to the specialist teaching spaces and sports facilities from the classrooms further improves this flexibility. The use of courtyards was further developed as one circulates through the building. Two internal courtyards provide space for external dining and external specialist learning. In addition, these same courtyards provide a visual stimulus within the building, as well as natural lighting to corridors.

Client: Kier/DfE

Marjorie McClure School London, £13M

Client: London Borough of Bromley

New build school for 100 students aged 4 - 19 with a diverse range of SEND including profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) and complex needs. The design seeks to align with the school’s educational vision that learning is an adventure, filled with inspirational and creative opportunities.

The new design is a single storey level access building as it was important to the school that the students can move around the building independently wherever possible. The project is part of the DfE’s Sustainability Pilot Scheme, which has been developed by the DfE in response to the UK Government target to achieve net-zero ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions by 2050.

Endeavour Co-operative Academy

Essex, £12M

New build school for 120 students aged 4 - 16 with moderate learning difficulties (MLD), replacing an existing outdated 1960s building.

The design is a linear block that creates a simple building plan for students to independently navigate around, and allows for clear progression as pupils age through the school. The Academy’s ethos is centred around developing independent learning, life skills, practical subjects alongside literacy and numeracy.

The materials nod to the local vernacular of Essex, with brick and black timber cladding that wraps the elevation, distinguishing the ground floor primary areas from the first floor secondary areas. The main entrance is expressed in a double height cut through the façade, and the schools identity is signified in the design using their branding colours in window frames as a splash of colour.

Client: Galliford Try/DfE