Parklands Educating Together Primary

The school has a strong presence at the head of the new main spine road running through the centre of the development. Understanding NSC’s high aspirations for the school, we were able to use high quality materials, and design a strong aesthetic facing onto the street elevation. The primary school main frontage is a composition of roof forms, which address the main approach along the spine road and the new park, whilst fragmenting the scale of the building and expressing its constituent elements as separate volumes. On approach from the east and south, the building massing is designed to stop-end the views, and draw visitors towards the main entrance. The roof ridge of the masonry gable end to the classroom block allows the building to achieve sufficient civic scale and prominence when seen in context with the three storey buildings (proposed as part of adjacent future development), whilst the lower eaves line helps to achieve a more appropriate scale for a primary school.

Locking will educate Nursery, key stage 1 &2 pupils, offering a large internal hall for sports/dining and generous external play spaces, including a landscaped amphitheatre, and multi-use games area. The school also offers a community room for the use of persons external to the school to book and take advantage of the space for activities and events.

The height of the tall window centred on the pitched gable, with its projecting frame, contributes to the sense of a grander, civic scale. The textured brickwork detailing also helps to relieve the mass of brickwork and gives the façade a greater sense of craftsmanship and refinement. In between the classroom and communal / shared facilities blocks, a glazed link provides the main entrance to the building.

The scale of the entrance is consciously reduced to help provide a welcoming approach for young children. The entrance canopy gives shelter and a sense of arrival. This link forms the nodal point between the two blocks, providing a secure lobby and the principal vertical circulation to the building. The communal / shared facilities block reinforces the proposed street frontage and provides the main playground with a sense of enclosure. It is expressed as a brick plinth with recessed header brick detailing with a standing seam, metal clad first floor. The parapet to the front section of the block is raised to give increased scale at the front of the site.

The School will be strongly committed to promoting community cohesion in the wider communities it serves, bringing together both the new and established communities in the immediate area. Providing facilities for community and pupil activities outside of the school timetable. The school will collaborate closely with a wide range of other local networks and partnerships in north Somerset and more widely to the benefit of its students, families and wider community.