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Swanshurst moves one step closer to completion

An innovative secondary school in Birmingham which is putting child inclusivity and welfare at the heart of its transformation has completed phases four and five of a six-phase project to completely remodel the school.

Swanshurst School has been working with Bournville Architects since 2008 to create an educational space where pupils and staff feel safe as well as part of the local community.

Phase four of the development started in Summer 2013 and focused on the construction of a flagship building for pupils with special educational needs whilst providing high-quality office space for the school’s social, health and wellbeing partners.

The new 373m2 flagship single-storey building contains five classrooms, disabled access and staff WCs, office accommodation and storage space.

In addition to the new build, phase five saw the complete refurbishment of the vacated health and social care classrooms to create a new 108m2 school entrance and reception area. To accommodate the change of entrance, a new controlled pedestrian and vehicular entrance to the school has been designed to further safeguard pupils.

“It is important that every child at Swanshurst has access to a broad and balanced education programme not just from an inclusivity perspective, but also to ensure everyone is on the same learning journey,” says Elaine Kenney, Swanshurst’s headteacher.

“Phase four was all about providing an aspirational setting for pupils with special or additional educational needs to ensure they have the extra resources to succeed and the outcome more than meets our expectations.

“The new building is the lynchpin of the whole redevelopment programme. Whilst it works as a standalone building it connects all the other phases together as well as fostering positive working relationships with our partners as they are now all located in one building.”

The school – which admits girls aged from 11 to 19 and boys into the sixth form – was originally developed in the late 1950’s and is sited on 6.4 hectares of land comprising a range of buildings, sports pitches, amenity spaces and car parking.

Whilst phase four’s brief was to create new learning areas, phase five reconfigured access to the school as Ian Tipton, director at Bournville Architects explains: “Previously public access and visitor parking was at the back of the school which meant that traffic had to travel the entire length of the site on a shared surface with pupils, potentially putting the children at risk.

“To safeguard pupils and future-proof the school a new entrance was designed and access reconfigured to provide a controlled pedestrian entrance to the site with a higher degree of natural surveillance.

“Swanshurst is all about working within the confines of an original footprint. Schools are under pressure to provide permanent extra school spaces with limited resources and Swanshurst is proof that with innovative design and vision, existing buildings can be revitalised to provide new learning environments.

“For many schools a complete new build is not an option, but through a mix of build, reconfiguration and refurbishment, existing resources which were not previously fit for purpose can be utilised whilst minimising costs.”

The new facility opened its doors to pupils in September 2014 and has been a hit with pupils, staff and the community.

“Bournville Architects took our vision, saw through the complexities and created a building which not only is aesthetically pleasing but meets our environmental requirements head on,” added Elaine.

Phases four and five of the redevelopment swiftly followed the third phase which kick-started the schools inclusivity and welfare transformation with a new sixth form centre and library.

The final phase of the development at Swanshurst School is due to go to planning this year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Bournville Architects .