Tetherdown Primary school

Solution

Tetherdown is one of the most successful primary schools in Britain. Due to changes in local demographics, it needed to double in size while enhancing its educational values, strong governance and sense of community. The local authority ran a competition, won by tp bennett, to incorporate this growth within a ‘whole school’ ethos.

The existing building, from the Victorian London School Board era, had inadequate circulation space, small classrooms and poor external play areas. A new hub building was designed to connect the old school to a three-storey cluster housing eight new classrooms, and act as a heart space housing the main staircase, hall, staffroom and catering facilities. It also acted as a hinge, giving cohesion to all the school’s buildings. Outside, new landscaping provided soft and hard play areas, external teaching space and an amphitheatre. As well as working to Conservation Area guidelines, the project was phased to allow the school to remain open during construction.