Background

St Nicholas Church of England School is a relocation of an existing village school into new enlarged accommodation. The original Victorian school only had one class room and a small hall, with most classes in unpleasant temporary classrooms which were not fit for purpose.

Coloured pods dominate the exterior

The new single storey school building accommodates 120 children within extensive grounds with  open and sheltered areas for active and quiet play. These include a large playing field, a court for ball games and two outside seating areas covered by fabric sails.

The exterior of the school is dominated by three brightly coloured 'pods' which link outside spaces to interior classrooms. The pods provide space for storage and pegs for hanging coats and bags as well as toilet facilities for the children. The colour of the doors, furniture and tiles in each classroom gives each pod an individual identity. Classrooms are bright and airy with large windows that look out to the playground and high level glazing in the roof. 

A curvy corridor runs throughout the interior

The building is designed around a curvy corridor across the full width of the building which leads to four classrooms, a special needs room, an IT suite, the school hall, catering facilities and administrative offices.

The corridor is more than a circulation space and includes comfortable seating, a small library and a kitchen for cookery classes. The school feels open and flexible with activities spilling out naturally into the central space.

The neutral colour pallet is brightened by the integration of stained glass windows designed by a local artist with the help of children from the school, part of Essex Council's art in architecture programme.

The main hall provides a large, naturally lit communal space for meal times, sports, drama and out of hours community activities.

The architect understood the design challenges

Staff, students and parents felt loyal to the old building despite its run down state., so the new building needed to be functional as well as capturing some of the atmosphere and ethos of the original school.

The architect understood this and the need to engage end users and the wider community in the development of the design. The Design Quality Indicator (DQI) was used as part of this consultative process.