Avondale is a small northern town school which demonstrates clearly the issues which face our state school estate at present. Limited capital budgets for improvements, growing pupil numbers and classroom density, ageing school stock which is really approaching end of “fit for purpose” life.

The school should really be replaced, but the site is too tight for a standard pattern school to be placed there, and the loss of space which would result would hit the pupils hardest of all, so instead the local authority is forced to make do with what they have, leading to the need for expansion to accommodate almost 250+ diners in a short lunch hour.

We were briefed to create more space for dining and to fix pupil flow issues at lunchtimes, with KS1 and KS2 pupils dining/playing separately but being forced to queue in tight corridor spaces.

The design solution is simple: to reconfigure the kitchen to create better chilled and dry storage space, to then cut away the windows at low level into the hall space and add a small timber “lean to” made of softwood ribs in a grid with skylights and restricted openable windows for natural ventilation.