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All Saints Primary School
All Saint’s Church of England Primary School, Peterborough.
“Loving to learn, learning to love” is the motto of the school, and we incorporated this vision into our brief to double the pupil capacity from a 210-place junior school to a 420-place primary school while maintaining the school’s faith-based environment.
Won in competition against five other practices, the challenge was to design a building occupying as little ground area as possible, enabling the existing junior school to operate fully during the new build, only two meters away. The existing school was eventually demolished to complete the landscaping. The result is a two-story, 14-classroom building with inward-facing courtyards opening from the main circulation spaces. The design is centred around three landscaped courtyards, each innovatively themed to provide contemplative pupil spaces and fluid internal-external teaching areas. Internal finishes include fair-faced brickwork and exposed structures to maximize the feeling of light and airiness in the classrooms and corridors.
The school hall is designed as a stand-alone structure for use by the external community.
The construction was split into three phases to enable the existing school to function without the hindrance of construction work: Enabling works and MUGA; School hall as two temporary classrooms; New 420-place primary school.
The suburban setting is complemented by a sensory garden with natural, wild meadow planting for nature study and outdoor learning. A sculpted grass bank amphitheater extends from the school hall for outdoor productions and plays. Built with gabion cages using bricks reclaimed from the existing junior school, the design retains a sense of history with the original site.
Project Highlights:
- 25,000 sq ft, new two-story, 2-form entry primary school
- Community/school hall
- 14 classrooms, Drama and Music Studio, Group Rooms, Admin Areas
- External first-floor terraces and courtyards
- Outdoor amphitheater
- Sensory garden
- Low energy and highly insulated
- Solar PV cells
- Natural ventilation
- Automated window-master system
- Sedum roofs
- Solar shading brise soleil
- SUDS drainage
- Value: £6.2 Million
- Role: Architects and Contract Administrator
“Thank you, GTA, for all your help over the last few years in designing and constructing our innovative new school. Andrew, the architect, has been instrumental in creating a bright and attractive learning environment that is both aesthetically pleasing and functional.
We are grateful to the team for their commitment to working alongside us, listening to our ideas, and incorporating them into the build.
On our Opening Day in June, a Year 6 child, upon meeting Andrew [lead architect], was overheard saying, ‘You must be very proud of our new school and what you have achieved,’ which perfectly sums up the staff’s and governors’ thoughts.”- Rachael Hutchinson, Headteacher
Oxfordshire​
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Studio 11, Fairfax House
Cromwell Business Park
Chipping Norton
Oxfordshire
OX7 5SR​​​​​​​​
​​​Cambridgeshire
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Sheraton House
Castle Park
Cambridge
CB3 OAX​​​
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