"Schools full of light and learning"

Noel-Baker School & St Martin's Special School will be officially opened at the end of June. The project was one of the last commissioned as part of the BSF process and provides an inspiring new home for the two co-located schools and extensive sports facilities shared by the community.

The staff and students have been enjoying their new buildings since 2012 but it is only now that Balfour Beatty have been able to complete the demolition of the old school and the landscaping of the park that will form the approach to the new buildings.

The schools' vision was for a building that captured the individual needs and identity of each school whilst still being able to support and enhance the relationship between them. A central dining atrium and cafe forms the shared heart of the new school. The learning areas are arranged in butterfly shaped clusters which reach out into the landscape and embrace open plan, ICT rich learning plazas within.

Both schools were looking for calm, light filled interiors that enabled their students to develop socially and emotionally as well as academically.

"It has been a journey for many years but we are in, we're happy and it's fantastic (...) the new buildings are exciting, full of light and full of learning."
Mal Kerr, Noel-Baker Headteacher