Salford Primary Capital Programme
Swedish Style for Salford Schools
The government has pledged extra resources to deliver ambitious plans for a new, long-term strategic capital investment programme for all primary schools in England. The Council for Salford, in Lancashire, has submitted its own strategic vision for 21st century learning in the city, called the Primary Strategy for Change. Government funding supplemented with other resources, will give the city a potential £131million pot for school improvement over the next 13 years - the single largest investment in primary education ever made in the city.
Two of the city’s primary schools amongst the first to benefit from this funding are Holy Family Roman Catholic School and Willow Tree Primary School.
Willow Tree
Willow Tree is a brand new school, opened in September 2010. It accommodates 420 school-aged children and also has a 60 place nursery. Not only is the building new, and everything in it, including furniture for the learning areas, classrooms and offices, but also the entire approach to teaching. Gone are the days of students sitting behind desks in structured rows, learning by rote. Classrooms are today a “multi-activity” space designed for a variety of different activities from break-out sessions to group learning to exams.
Says Ros Munro, Willow Tree’s Head Teacher, “Today technology and transformational learning are at the heart of the school’s vision and it was vital that the furnishings would enable us to create an inspirational and motivational environment to support that vision.”
Development and regeneration organisation Urban Vision and their design arm Capita Symonds were responsible for the whole build. Capita Symonds’s Abigail Carpe is a designer whose role in Salford is to produce “wow factor” interiors for the local community. During a trip to Scandinavia she came across a furniture manufacturer called Kinnarps and was impressed with their attractive products, approach to sustainability, and design philosophy – which focuses on the individual using the furniture, its flexibility in use, diversity (such as community use), system approach and functionality.
Happily, Kinnarps – with branches all over the UK - were one of the approved suppliers of education furniture on the framework agreement for the Salford project and it was agreed that Ros Munro and a colleague would take a trip down to London to visit the Kinnarps showroom near Heathrow.
Ros comments, “We were really impressed with the style and flexibility of Kinnarps’ education furniture, and a chat with some of their designers demonstrated that they really understood what we were trying to achieve in the school. As an organisation they are also wholly committed to sustainability and their use of environmentally-friendly materials matched our own ethos.”
It was a requirement that the architectural design solution achieved at least a ‘very good’ rating under the BREEAM assessment system for sustainable development. BREEAM sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building’s environmental performance.
Capita Symonds took furniture samples from a variety of suppliers to existing schools in the area so that children who would be attending the new schools could evaluate it. Abigail Carpe comments, “Kinnarps were the overall winner of all 3 schools that they went too. It makes us very proud knowing that the children starting at Willow Tree would be working with the products they chose themselves.”
Kinnarps had already helped several schools to create supportive ergonomic and aesthetic learning environments in which both students and teachers could feel inspired and motivated to reach their full potential.
“It has been proven scientifically that there is a link between the physical environment and the performance of the people using it,” says Ciaran O’Doherty, Head of Local Business for Kinnarps (UK) Limited, Manchester.
This is, of course, a particularly important point to bear in mind when furnishing schools.
“We also understand”, he continues, “that children come in all shapes and sizes, and continue to change throughout their education. In addition to being durable enough to withstand the daily onslaught of energetic youngsters, our Origo table range was chosen because it is height-adjustable and available in different shapes and sizes. Anything that helps a child maintain concentration is a benefit, so we provided Casper chairs, which are solid and comfortable, making it easier them to be more attentive in class.”
Key to a project like Willow Tree is the ability to balance the needs of all the stakeholders, from the budget holders, the builders, the designers and architects and, of course, the children, and the head teachers and educators who are ultimately responsible for delivering excellence within their schools.
For example, delivering on time and within budget are usually the biggest challenge in any project, and Willow Tree was no exception.
Ros Munro comments, “Timing was a real challenge, as was sticking to budget. However, Kinnarps worked well with us on both counts, enabling us to keep within cost and to timescale – as well as ticking all the boxes of our specification. And when installation did take place, at the end of August for a September opening, it went completely to plan and required very little involvement on my part - perfect!”
Holy Family
Furnishing Holy Family Primary School came soon after the Willow Tree project was finished. The Head and Deputy Head of Holy Family (name) had visited Kinnarps in Sweden and had, of course, seen the furniture installed at Willow Tree, giving them a good idea of what they wanted for their school.
However, to Kinnarps every project is different. Interior designer Abigail Carpe says, “Kinnarps approach each project on an individual basis. They understand that each school is individual and therefore take into account the unique needs of the client and end user.”
She continues, “A major challenge that we have with the classrooms and the external learning spaces is balancing the work and play ratio of furniture, but we feel we have accomplished a good solution between ourselves and Kinnarps.”
Another obstacle was that due to delays, the building wasn’t ready to accommodate the furniture on schedule. Ciaran O’Doherty comments, “This is something we encounter quite regularly, especially with new build or premises moves, and we have to be flexible. Our installation team goes onto red alert so that they are ready, 24x7 to move as soon as they get the OK”.
Conclusion
Capita Symonds has recently won “Best Public Sector Building” at the Salford Design Awards 2010 for their work at Willow Tree. “We were assessed on everything from the landscaping to the building and the furniture. This award confirms that we achieved our goals of creating a resource that is valued and being used effectively by the local community,” Abigail Carpe concludes.