Heath Primary

Heath Primary provides teaching facilities across three buildings with a capacity for 241 pupils. The school teaches pupils from Nursery age through to Year 6 and is based around a fine 1904 character building that is of local historic significance.

The site was operating beyond its current capacity and as a result a number of specialist facilities have had to be repurposed as general teaching spaces. Other spaces such as the main hall was significantly undersized.

In order to address issues surrounding capacity, organisation of facilities and significant deterioration of the main teaching building, an extension and major refurbishment was carried out.
The extended and refurbished teaching block allowed capacity to be increased to 330 pupils, providing additional teaching spaces to free up specialist facilities for their intended use. The project created dedicated spaces for behaviour, pastoral care and SEN pupils and provided a new larger main hall space to meet DfE requirements.

At lower ground floor the two new classrooms have an external door allowing direct access to outside, encouraging outdoor learning and play wherever possible. The link element of the building acts as the main pupil entrance, providing a central entry point whilst other pupil entrances within the existing building were also retained. To the South of the new extension an existing hard play area was retained with the new building and additional fencing creating a secure line to the North.

Key to the project was ensuring that the school can remain operational throughout the works. As such, careful consideration was been paid to phasing and providing temporary classrooms and facilities for pupils and staff to decant into. A temporary car park accommodated staff and visitors. Following completion of the works the facilities was reinstated as soft landscaping.

The aim is to create a welcoming learning environment and a building that sits well alongside its neighbours.