THE STARTING POINT
Several modular suppliers had already been engaged when Streetspace was invited in.
Advance Learning Partnership had a clear objective: establish dedicated SEND provision at Whitworth Park Academy in County Durham, enabling pupils currently placed outside the Trust to be supported within their own local school community.
What the Trust increasingly questioned was whether a modular solution was the right fit for a provision of this importance. Parents and students would judge the quality of what was built. School leaders wanted a building that felt permanent, welcoming and fully part of the school.
A DIFFERENT CONVERSATION
The brief was developed together, not handed over.
Rather than presenting a product or adapting a standard layout, the team worked to understand what the provision actually needed to do – through collaborative workshops with the Trust’s Chief Executive, CFO and senior estates staff.
A key challenge was the need to support two distinct cohorts of students with different behavioural and educational needs within the same building. Circulation routes, entrances, breakout spaces and staff facilities were all developed with that in mind.
“What began as a project expected to follow a modular route became an example of what a more considered design and build approach can achieve – for the students, for the staff, and for the Trust’s long-term estate.”
OUTCOME
Completed on programme and within budget.
The completed building provides a permanent home for ALP Connect, the Trust’s new SEND provision. A high-quality educational environment designed around the students who use it – not around the constraints of a predefined building format.
RELATED PROJECTS
Beamont Collegiate Academy
Turning an overlooked undercroft into a permanent part of the school.
Woodhouse Grove School
A large-span covered sports facility at a scale uncommon in UK schools.
Loughborough College
From stalled scheme to delivered building and an ongoing way of working.