Warwick Independent Schools Foundation

King’s High School is an independent girls’ school and forms part of the Warwick Independent Schools Foundation.
The school has moved from its Warwick town centre site and relocated to the campus where Warwick School and Warwick Preparatory School are based, consolidating the Foundation’s estate and providing an opportunity for improved facilities for all the schools.

The new two storey building is designed around a landscaped courtyard that establishes an intimate ‘heart’ for the school and inspirational educational facility for its students and staff. A canopied main entrance with a tall, raking brick wall gathers visitors and guides them to the school’s reception set within a double height entrance space. Teaching classrooms, science labs, administration and staff accommodation are arranged along the courtyard’s east and west sides while the larger volume, assembly type spaces are positioned to the north and south.

The new, timber lined assembly hall to the north of the courtyard, is large enough to contain the whole school population. A suite of drama spaces, including two double height studios, adjacent to the hall can be accessed using interconnecting doors. The King’s High library forms the courtyard’s southern elevation, making it highly visible from the rest of the building; reinforcing the school’s message of educational excellence and academic achievement.

A new dining hall completes the building’s southern elevation, next to the playing fields providing an excellent venue for post-match receptions.

The new sports technology centre has been designed as a formal brick-clad building that wraps around the existing Bridge Sports Hall on three sides and provides a new frontage, facing the school entrance on Banbury Road and the approach into Warwick.

A series of zinc-clad, pyramidal roofs topped with glazed lanterns are laid out along the south elevation to provide studio and workshop space for Art, Design Technology and Food Technology.

The modern building provides new sports facilities that include a full height timber-lined gym, fitness suite, changing areas, staff rooms and lockers.

The new centre for Warwick School and King’s High students provides generous social and study facilities that reflect the vibrant life that sixth form offers. Externally the building has been designed as a two-storey brick volume with a lightweight aluminium and glass ‘penthouse’.

Internally, the spaces are consciously different to other teaching spaces within the Foundation, to reflect the nature of the occupants within.

Students can use the ground floor café and social space during break times and free periods. A wide timber accommodation stair leads to the first floor and is designed to be used for informal seating or extra curriculum events.

The first floor is dedicated to an extensive careers zone, including the careers office, library, one-to-one meeting rooms and informal seminar areas. The top floor is dedicated to quiet study and links to a roof-top terrace that can be used for events.