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The new £17.2 million building for the specialist English & Performing Arts college, Brannel School, has started on site.
Located in St Stephen in Cornwall and commissioned by Cornwall Council, the building has been designed by HLM Architects and is being built by Kier Western.
The new school is needed to replace existing Brannel School buildings, which have aged beyond economical repair.
The new facilities will provide 6,622 sq m (about 71,000 sq ft) – roughly the size of a football pitch – of teaching space and associated facilities for up to 750 pupils; including a theatre, performing arts spaces, multi-use games area, all-weather floodlit sports pitch, outdoor amphitheatre and a specialist Area Resource Base to cater for up to 12 pupils with special needs. The new school is expected to be completed for the start of the 2011 academic year. The building has been designed to provide maximum flexibility, and also includes integrated ICT facilities to provide further opportunities to increase personalised learning and enable the school to take advantage of future developments in ICT. It will meet the latest environmental standards with ground source heating, solar water heating and green roofs and is expected to achieve the Excellent BREEAM rating.
Caroline Buckingham, Director of HLM Architect’s Plymouth office said: "The new Brannel School has been designed to be inclusive, bringing the whole community together. It will be a welcoming and exciting place for learning, providing students, staff and the local community with a healthy, challenging and inspirational learning environment."
To keep disruption to a minimum, the new school is being built on the current playing fields directly behind the existing school. Construction work will be completed in early summer next year, with staff and pupils expected to move into their new school in May 2011. Work on demolishing the existing school building will then begin. The Sports Centre and a small part of the existing school will then be refurbished to provide additional sports facilities, a fitness suite and a community base.
(GK)
