Primary School 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.

Technical Advisor Education

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 New build

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

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

Architectural Services

New build, extension and refurbishment

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

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 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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.