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Wintringham Primary Academy

A new model for primary education

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Client: Cambridgeshire County Council
Status: Completed
Location: St Neots, Cambridgeshire
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Type/Sector: Education
Tagged: Engineered Timber, Sustainability Exemplars

Collaborators

Main Contractor Morgan Sindall
Masterplan Developer Urban and Civic
Structural Engineer (super-structure) Engenuiti
Structural Engineer (sub-structure and civils) Peter Dann Consulting Engineers
Services Engineer Roger Parker Associates
Cost Consultant Morgan Sindall / Faithful & Gould
BREEAM Assessor Stroma
Planning Consultant Turley
Landscape Designer Bradley Murphy Design
CLT Supplier KLH UK

This elegant timber school provides an inspirational learning environment for its pupils by surrounding them with nature, inside and outside.

Collaborators

Main Contractor Morgan Sindall
Masterplan Developer Urban and Civic
Structural Engineer (super-structure) Engenuiti
Structural Engineer (sub-structure and civils) Peter Dann Consulting Engineers
Services Engineer Roger Parker Associates
Cost Consultant Morgan Sindall / Faithful & Gould
BREEAM Assessor Stroma
Planning Consultant Turley
Landscape Designer Bradley Murphy Design
CLT Supplier KLH UK
The grove at the centre of the school
01 A new heart for a new community

The primary school provides a community focal point for Wintringham Park, a 205ha masterplan development to the east of St Neots town centre in Cambridgeshire.

The three-form entry school is a two-storey building that accommodates 708 students alongside 60 teachers and support staff. The academy contributes to a new public plaza. Its place in the community is further enhanced by sharing its facilities such as the hall and studio.

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Aerial highlighting the grove
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Natural daylight floods circulation space around the grove
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Double height and bright atrium
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Aerial highlighting the grove
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Natural daylight floods circulation space around the grove
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Double height and bright atrium
02 A forest school in the round

The overall design concept sought inspiration from forest school principles, offering an abundance of outdoor learning spaces and indoor teaching spaces that feel surrounded by nature.

Classrooms are clustered into groups of three and arranged around a central woodland grove, a landscaped learning resource that embodies the ethos of the academy and the wider masterplan.

This design also supports learning in the round, an organisational spatial concept developed by us that provides a framework for the efficient arrangement of classroom clusters and other support spaces. This not only places similar age groups together to foster support, but also allows for shared facilities to be clustered, arranged and easily accessed from all classroom spaces.

One of my favourite moments on this project was working together with the school’s future Head Teacher during the design development stages. While we discussed different design ideas for the project it was revealing to listen to her describe how she imagined the different spaces would be occupied by pupils, teachers, parents and even her pet dog Simba. These vivid descriptions brought this new school to life long before the first spade was in the ground.

Regina Kertapati
Regina Kertapati
Associate
Learning in the round at Wintringham Primary Academy

Insight: Regina Kertapati

Rainbow terracotta cladding and student lockers
It was a bit of a wow moment when we saw it for the first time. I don't think I could quite believe it. This is a fantastic building and we are incredibly proud of it. And actually, we want to show it off to everybody, because it's just so wonderful. It already has a fantastic impact on the children. It encourages them to learn and it inspires them.
Tracy Bryden
Executive Headteacher, Wintringham Primary Academy
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Ground floor classroom
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Upper floor classroom
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Ground floor classroom
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Sports hall
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Ground floor classroom
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Upper floor classroom
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Ground floor classroom
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Sports hall
03 Sustainable thinking

We set out to reduce the building’s carbon impact by adopting a fabric first approach to design.

Impressively for a building designed in 2017, it exceeds the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge for embodied carbon for new build schools.

The use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) for the entire building’s structure and interior offers a comforting environment whilst making construction easier, faster, safer and more efficient. The superstructure sequesters 166 metric tonnes of carbon (A1-A5), with 49% of the carbon impact of a RIBA 2030 ‘business as usual’ school. It also reduced time on site, created a safer and cleaner working environment and allowed greater control over service coordination.

The structural efficiency of CLT enabled the creation of a slender roof form that gently follows the contour of the school’s avocado-shaped plan. Its generous overhanging canopy not only provides solar shading to rooms but also weather protection to the outdoor learning spaces below. Through collaboration with the school’s teachers, we were also able to carefully design in a series of ‘soft spots’ within the engineered timber structure that allow for spatial changes to adapt to the school’s future growth and evolving curriculum.

Ceramic tiles wrap around the building’s timber structure. The glazed ceramic panels draw inspiration from the seasonal colours found within nature and provide wayfinding and identity to the different year groups.

View our detailed Sustainability Impact Summary for the school here.

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Elevated roof above sports hall
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Arrive view
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Outside lunch areas
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Playground
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Playground
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Elevated roof above sports hall
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Arrive view
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Outside lunch areas
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Playground
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Playground
04 Cost and efficiency

Appointed as Lead Designer by Morgan Sindall, we successfully worked with the design team to produce a coordinated design package within an extremely tight programme.

Choosing a CLT framing system was critical because it allowed the full frame to be erected within 2.5 months and reduced the cost of the foundation package significantly.

Wintringham Primary Academy’s motto is to ‘nurture, inspire, flourish’, and with this smart, efficient and caring building, we feel confident that the school now has the environment to do just that.

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Glazed terracotta elevations
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Exterior concept illustration
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Exploded diagram
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Glazed terracotta elevations
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Exterior concept illustration
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Exploded diagram
Main entrance

Awards

2022
Wood Awards
Highly Commended
2022
Civic Trust Awards
Shortlisted
2022
AJ Awards, School Project
Shortlisted
2022
Structural Timber Awards - Project of the Year
Highly Commended
2022
Structural Timber Awards - Education Project of the Year
Shortlisted
2022
RIBA East Regional Award
Winner
2022
RIBA East Sustainability Prize
Winner

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