A School in the heart of the community
This consultation is now closed
Meridian Trust (formerly CMAT) and the Department for Education (DfE) worked with BAM Construction and Mott MacDonald to deliver a purpose built 8 Form Entry Secondary School. The school will eventually grow to house its own 6th Form; providing a total of 1500 school places, including 300 pupils within the 6th Form. The state of the art building provides appropriate sport and recreation facilities on the site East of Weldon Village with an ambition to enhance facilities for the community as well as the school population.
The site layout retained as much of the existing vegetation within the site as possible, as an integral part of the landscape scheme that also incorporated a comprehensive sustainable drainage system. The building is located to provide good access to all facilities for all users, and sensitively addressed the surrounding area by appropriately offsetting development from the neighbouring new residential estate to the West. The site layout has been developed to make maximum use of the external areas, including a variety of external sports pitches and 4 court Multi Use Games Area (MUGA). It also provides safe dedicated access to parking and drop off areas, as well as to cycle and pedestrian links to the main building entrances and sports areas.
The building form is arranged by 2 teaching wings that stem from the main building spine, creating a protected courtyard, with the rear of the building form creating a link to the sports facilities and offering good external views across the school fields. The building mass is varied and includes both 3 and 2 storeys, which reduces the visual dominance of the built form.
The materials palette draws on local brick tones, consisting of a mainly buff brick building, with areas of the façade emphasised by vertical cladding. Grey framed windows with dark brick lower panels create an elegance to the façade proportions. The sports hall is clad in contrasting random blue panels, that tone and disperse to reduce the visual impact of the elevation.
