Make produced designs for this coeducation school of 1,140 pupils as part of a bid for the first wave of Kent’s Building Schools for the Future programme. The school is a Roman Catholic Comprehensive and has a visual arts specialism, both of which were strong design drivers. The proposals create an airy and highly flexible interior capable of adapting to future developments in educational practice.
Teaching accommodation is organised around a central ‘heart’ in which pupil’s work is displayed, demonstrating the school’s particular focus on art and creativity. This large covered ‘heart space’ has been given primary significance in the design development, reinforcing the school’s identity as a single community, enabling whole school gatherings and providing space for exhibitions and events. The area is the primary circulation space throughout the school day and is socially animated by uses that spill out from its edges, including the entrances to the ‘School within a school’ (SWaS), the dining areas, performance hall and the ‘grand stair’.
The ‘art loft’ is a large open-plan space with a studio atmosphere where inter-disciplinary teaching and project-based learning is encouraged. The dynamic flow of work, including media, visual arts and graphics activities, will be interspersed with art stores with sink spaces, which further define smaller break-out areas and presentation spaces.
The loft is devised to enable educational step change by accommodating a variety of arrangements which provide flexibility for changing curricular models as well as different group sizes and learning styles.The ‘learning plazas’ are designed to provide flexible interaction and a high level of interconnection between multiple groups of students, as well as spaces where each student can find an identity within his/her own group and feel valued as an important member of the school.
