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

One head's vision of a fully sustainable primary school is about to become reality in Newark, Nottinghamshire. After 50 years in ex-army huts, Bowbridge Primary School is about to move into a building inspired by the greenest of ideals and a passion for community inclusion.

Bowbridge Primary School began life in 1950 in huts built in 1942 to train royal engineers to construct Bailey Bridges for D-Day. This September, it will move into to a brand-new, purpose-built, sustainable, eco-friendly building.

It’s a giant step and one that the staff and pupils of the school will take in September 2008, at the beginning of the new school year.

Bowbridge was conceived in an era of post-war austerity and severe underfunding. The school was established in 1950 and housed in ex-army camp barracks. This “temporary measure” - as minuted in local authority records of the time - was supposed to be replaced in 1969.

This is what David Dixon inherited when he was appointed to the headship in 1995.

It gets worse. In 2001 the junior school amalgamated with the neighbouring infant school and took over a collection of CLASP (Consortium of Local Authorities Special Programme) buildings, constructed in phases from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. These had a projected life of 30 years.

So - a school which served an estate with significant levels of social deprivation and disaffection, whose infrastructure was well past its sell-by date, and an amalgamation that, says David, “was given no funding. All we had to play with were economies of scale and a dual budget phased out over three years”.

Bowbridge, however, was rapidly gaining a reputation within the education community for innovation in extended services (with particular emphasis on adult learning), education for sustainability and ICT (the first school to establish an e-Learning Foundation). These successes, coupled with good inspection results, strengthened David’s resolve to increase his lobbying of the local authority for capital resources.

At the same time, the school was invited to take part in a partnership project with Nottingham University’s School of the Built Environment, a department with an international reputation for eco-building. “Over a term, says David, “they sent in 27 of their final year students to work with children and staff with the aim of coming up with school designs worthy of the 21st century.”

Parents and pupils were involved in the consultative process and six sets of designs were displayed at County Hall, Nottingham.

“Involvement with the university undoubtedly raised our skills and expectations in school design,” says David. And by the time a new capital programme which included Bowbridge was announced three years ago, “all school stakeholders had developed a good knowledge of what we wanted to achieve”.

The army block was to be replaced by a new build to house Years 2-6 (10 classes), with the remaining classes continuing in the CLASP block. “Thankfully, we were allocated a very innovative architect, Cristina González-Longo, who brought a fresh European perspective to our ideas,” says David. The aim was to build a new primary school that was eco-friendly, sustainable and capable or supporting a 21st century curriculum.

Cristina looks back on the project as challenging in both site and budget terms. “The aspirations set out by the school were high,” she explains, “as was the necessity to design to a restricted budget.

“It soon became apparent that Bowbridge was far more than a formal education establishment. It was the core of the community, with a strong ethos to improve people’s quality of life and wellbeing. The new building and landscape had to be designed not only to be sustainable on its own, but also to become the centre of a sustainable community.”

Consultation at the heart of the process

The staff and pupils at Bowbridge were now asked to help provide “a brief and a masterplan, looking at the best uses for all the different areas of the site, including proposals for existing and new buildings, parking, playgrounds, sports area and landscape. The students wanted a spacious and bright building, they did not want to be ‘stuck’ in classrooms when it was raining and they wanted warm and colourful floors.

Teamwork and consultation, yes, but also leadership. It’s a quality that cannot be valued too highly in the development of the new school. It’s Cristina’s belief that, “without David’s leadership and vision, this innovative school building would not have gone ahead”.

It’s a view endorsed by deputy head Eileen Reddish. “Dave communicates a very clear vision for Bowbridge Primary School and is passionate about creating the right conditions for children and adults to flourish. This includes striving to procure a new build that will, in every aspect, meet the exacting requirements that will ensure a first class learning environment. Through his determination and hard work the whole community will benefit from a new build that is special and ‘out of the ordinary’”.

A building charter was drawn up by David, Cristina and Marriott Construction prior to work commencing on the site. This specified appropriate use of plant, materials and on-site fuels, the need to minimize environmental damage during building and the desire for the new school to achieve Eco School Green Flag status.

Objectives of the new school

David identifies the five main objectives of the new school as:

  • Flexible learning spaces to facilitate individualised learning and the use of ICT. This also to ‘future proof’ the building.
  • A ‘learning building’ as well as a ‘building of learning’ i.e. the building itself to be an educational tool to promote education for sustainable development (ESD) for the children and the community
  • School to be as near to carbon neutral as possible and to be built with materials from a sustainable and local source (also use of local labour)
  • The building to conform to the school’s aims of making the physical and psychological conditions as good as possible to facilitate learning
  • Strong emphasis on the outdoor curriculum i.e. grounds to be seen as ‘outdoor learning spaces’.

It’s been a challenging and a steep learning process. At local level, David feels that, with hindsight, he would have, “flagged up difficulties sooner with the authorities so that they fully appreciated the issues of problems with the funding and the potential loss of extended facilities.”

At national level, it is his belief that, “more joined-up thinking” is needed from government with regard to climate change, ethical procurement and building sustainability.

Nonetheless, the new Bowbridge School is well on the way to achieving its stated intent to “to serve as an exemplar design for Nottinghamshire County Council.” Some of the most important features are:

  • Flexible year-group areas, rather than classrooms, that incorporate ‘quiet’ areas for special education needs (SEN) and other interventions.
  • Toilets - with different dimensions for different year groups - that are convenient for learners without being intrusive.
  • An abundance of natural wood and greenery both inside and outside the building.
  • A large atrium, with natural light helping to create a bright and airy communal area.
  • No corridors. The floor space is incorporated in flexible learning areas.
  • Wireless network.
  • Locally sourced wood pellet boiler using locally grown wood.
  • Zoning, so that the building can easily be adapted for use out of school hours.

From an architect’s perspective, Cristina points to the “flexible spaces that allow for different teaching styles and learning experiences, and the variety of spaces that allow for mental and physical stimulation and enriched social experiences.”

The building reflects, she says, “a culture of the 21st century, in architectural, technological, but above all, educational terms.” And Marriot Construction’s site manager Gavin Cotton, acknowledges that, “the end user has had a big input in how this building has been designed.” Marriot, he continues, are proud to be playing a major part by adhering to the build charter.

And the huts? Far from being demolished they’ve got a new lease of life. Funding from the Health Services will help refurbish the old army block and the school will be able to provide the local community with a crèche, child and family therapy unit, ecumenical centre, climate change centre, community care and library and heritage site. And, hopefully, a Bailey Bridge Museum (David is a self-confessed ‘Bailey Bridge anorak’!) which will pay homage to an invention that is reckoned to have shortened World War II by as much as three years.

It’s a happy ending for a building with such historical connections but it’s also an apt illustration of how values such as resourcefulness, sustainability, common sense and communal pride have driven and guided this deeply inspirational project.

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