Baden-Powell and St. Peter’s CE VC Middle School is a 5 form entry school providing education for 600 pupils aged 8 to 11, and due to its status as a middle school has a wider range of specialist facilities than would normally be encountered in a typical primary school, including a dedicated science room. A band of tall trees enclose and separate the site from its residential surroundings. The brief was to provide a 6 form entry Junior School for 720 pupils, as part of a strategy to introduce a single structure for school provision across Poole.
The DQI Briefing workshop was run differently. It was a full day event in the form of an enhanced assessment of existing building and grounds, followed by one large group discussion on stakeholders’ issues and aspirations for the new building. This will be used and referred to in future assessments of the developing designs.
The DQI Mid Design workshop involved assessing the design proposals by scoring a predetermined questionnaire, the results were then used to generate discussions. The design was largely achieving the aspirations that have been set, within the constraints of the existing building and site, and was scored highly by all participants. The school places a strong emphasis on teamwork, and it was felt the new design will reinforce this in the design of resource areas, the new hall (team games and lunchtime activities), changing rooms (for team activities), and shared resources such as laboratory and group rooms. Several issues were observed where further work would be needed such as provision of accessible toilet, and signage for the visually impaired; access, circulation and security; and provision of car parking and cycling facilities.
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alwyn_ladell/9929128574