Greenwich Council

Client - Greenwich Council & YT Educational and Skills LTD
Location - 14 Secondary School sites across the borough
Appointed - 2007-05-15
Estimated value - £150m

We have been working with Greenwich Council since the millennium and were involved in providing architectural support to the early PFI bid that was eventually the basis of a pathfinder for the Building Schools for the Future programme in 2004.

Plumstead Manor School - Since July 2000, we have prepared, and continued to update, the site development plan to accommodate increasing pupil numbers (proposed 8FE and 600 sixth formers) at this popular and successful comprehensive girls school, with mixed 6th Form. The existing buildings on the site comprise the former Kings Warren' Grammar School dating from the 1920's and a major complex of teaching blocks designed by Powell and Moya Architects in the 1970's. At less than two hectares the site is extremely constricted with limited opportunities for major new buildings. Exhaustive analysis has led to proposals to acquire adjoining sites to facilitate any new development

Thomas Tallis School - An outline design, prepared at OBC stage, for a new building for 1,950 pupils (9FE and 600 sixth formers) on the school's current playing fields. The proposal forms part of a wider urban regeneration scheme of the nearby Ferrier Estate in Kidbrooke. The 'green wedge' form terminates the proposed pedestrian route across the existing school site. Shallow-plan teaching blocks around generous courtyards maximise opportunities for natural lighting and ventilation of classrooms.

The John Roan School - A feasibility study for the proposed relocation of The John Roan school to a new site on the Greenwich peninsula, provided as part of a Section 106 agreement. The new building will allow expansion of one form of entry at ages 11-16 to eight in total, and an additional 200 places at post-16 (1,600 pupils). The constricted nature of the site, less than half that recommended for a secondary school on a confined site, means that the new building will be an innovative multi-storey solution. The design evolved around an 'atrium' solution, with year groups accommodated at ascending horizontal floors, offering both general &specialist teaching spaces to minimize vertical movement of pupils during the day. Escalators and lifts allow speedy access to the upper floors.

Most recently we have been working closely with the Council's strategic partner VT Education and Skills Ltd . in respect of 'Readiness to Deliver' on the remaining eleven secondary school sites. In December 2006 the DfES announced that the Council would be placed in Wave 5 with work to commence in September 2007.

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