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Grand design

Sharrow Primary School

This article originally appeared on the Future Online website as part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) support programme.

When is a school not a school? ‘When it’s a community building where teaching and learning takes place’ might seem like a phrase from the book of educational waffle. But there’s no better way to describe this amazing, colourful and open plan building in the heart of one of Sheffield’s most deprived areas. Sharrow Primary School defies any traditional notion of what a school should look like and feel like. And that’s just how they like it at Sharrow.

Sharrow School defies traditional ideas of what a school should look and feel like. It has a state of the art ‘green roof’ which doubles as a curriculum resource and is already a massive hit with the local community.

But to build a successful school means spending time on creating a shared vision, say headteacher Lynne Ley and chair of governors David Baker.

The new school was born out of a decision by Sheffield City Council to amalgamate junior and infant provision on the same site. But simply replacing a familiar Victorian landmark and a popular infant school with a brand new building, no matter how state of the art, would not have been enough. There have been too many instances of new school architecture struggling to gain acceptance or failing to overcome a community’s sense of loss.

Headteacher Lynne Ley was having none of that. From the outset she was determined that the new school was to be an asset for the community, somewhere where teaching and learning took place all the time, not just during school hours.

“We wanted a building where learning took place, which was as deinstitutionalised as we could possibly make it,” says Lynne. “We didn’t want a school where we had to have lots of regimes, and really tight organisation. We wanted it to feel open and welcoming for the parents and the community.”

The vision

Fortunately, Sheffield City Council was of the same mind and together they set about creating a vision for the new school – a vision which would be shared by pupils, parents, teachers and the people who lived across the road.

This was a lengthy process. It involved sessions with pupils taking photographs of their existing school and describing what they did and didn’t like and then repeating the exercise at both newly built and more established schools in other parts of the city.

Parents also took part in a series of workshops organised by architect Cath Basilio. They were asked their opinions on everything about the new school, from the colours on the walls to the type of concrete used in the exterior.

Teachers were involved in the discussions at every point and Lynne also brought in members of the Sharrow Project – a regeneration forum which includes the local library and community workers on nearby estates.

Architects, contractors and landscape designers spent a lot of time at the school, getting to know everything about the school community and sharing their sketches and drawings of what the school might look like.

“The process of creating the vision, creating the brief and then building the school seemed to take forever,” chair of governors David Baker says. “But that thinking time meant that we could define our vision and reflect the community’s vision.”

Shock of the new

What they came up with was pretty revolutionary. Sharrow Primary School has no corridors, open plan spaces allow the mixing of year groups and teachers, classrooms have ensuite toilets and every single classroom has direct access to outside space, daylight and natural ventilation as well opportunities for outdoor play, linking recreation to learning.

Identical fitted furniture means that year groups can move around from one place to another. Assistant headteacher Evelyn Abrams admitted that the radical nature of the new look took many by surprise. "It was a bit of a shock for the pupils when they first walked in - there are no corridors, the toilets are all in the classrooms and year groups work in open-plan bases," she told the local paper.

Lynne Ley says the open-plan nature of Sharrow allows teachers and pupils from different year groups to work together and for teachers to learn from each other. “We wanted something where we could put teachers who were struggling, maybe with behaviour management, with teachers who were handling behaviour management really well so they can learn from each other in a very non-threatening sort of way.”

Sheffield's greenest school

Sharrow is also now Sheffield's greenest school, with a heating system powered by warmth coming up from deep in the earth, toilets flushed by rainwater – and a roof designed to replicate a meadow, complete with cornflowers and other urban plants.

It is also a haven for birds and other kinds of wildlife, with rotting tree stumps provided for many kinds of insects. Soon to be equipped with a webcam, the green roof is a learning resource with a dozen curriculum-friendly uses.

Architect Cath Basilio says the green roof needed to have a purpose in the school. It would have been easy to go for “a cuddly organic kind of building” she says, but such a plan would have fallen at the first financial hurdle. Instead, the sustainability element would have to earn its keep and that’s precisely what happens at Sharrow.

The roof also works on a technical level, sorting water run-off problems and assisting in the control of storm water, humidity, noise, heat and pollution.

Changed relationships

Sharrow has been open for just over a term – but already it’s having an impact on children and parents, according to deputy head Evelyn Abrams. It’s the same group of children and the same group of staff but relationships have changed.

Parent Safiya Saeed says. “I do feel the school is at the heart of the community and the staff don’t only cater for the children, they cater for their mothers, their whole families.”

I would never have believed that a new building could have the impact on teaching and learning and involvement of the local community that this had had in such a short space of time,” adds Evelyn.

And the last word belongs to chair of governors, David Baker, “This is not a school that was ‘done to us’ – it’s our school and it works.”

Facts and figures

  • Sharrow School is a three-storey junior and infant school formed from the amalgamation of Sharrow Infant and Nursery School and Sharrow Junior School, following a review of school places in a deprived area of the city.
  • The school covers 2,700 square metres and has 420 primary places, a 52 place nursery unit and 30 places in its early years centre.
  • The architect was Cath Basilio of Sheffield City Council Architects Department, the landscape designer was Helen Mitchell, and contractors were Kier Construction.

Six things to remember when planning a new school

  1. Having a shared vision for a new school is paramount. It’s worth taking time to work out what you really want for your new school.
  2. Sustainability cannot be an add-on. If you want your new building to be ‘green’, it’s got to work as a learning tool.
  3. Start with what you want – but be aware of the constraints – money, time and so on – and then work within those to get what you want.
  4. Involve everyone with a stake in the new school, including parents, pupils, staff and neighbours.
  5. If you delegate decision making to different groups of stakeholders, stick to the decisions made, don’t try and revisit them.
  6. Make sure you are clear about what you want – unless you know in your own mind what you are looking for, you won’t be able to explain it to a design team.

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