Growing pressure on dining provision has led to a series of projects with Ormiston Academies Trust, beginning at George Salter Academy in 2022 and continuing through Ormiston Chadwick Academy to the current work at Ormiston Flegg Academy.
Each project addresses the same broad pressure on dining capacity but within a different school, site and operational context. The relationship has therefore developed around a consistent approach to design, cost and delivery rather than a standard building repeated across the Trust — carrying experience from one academy into the next while allowing each project to respond to its own requirements.
George Salter Academy
The relationship began at George Salter Academy in West Bromwich, where pressure on existing dining provision was affecting more than the lunchtime experience. The school was relying on its main hall to provide additional capacity, limiting the availability of an important space for teaching and examinations.
Streetspace developed a permanent 205m² dining extension, creating capacity for approximately 160 additional students and allowing the main hall to return to its wider role within the school.
The new glazed structure was designed to connect with and complement the existing building rather than operate as a separate facility. Natural light and year-round thermal performance were considered alongside the additional capacity, creating a permanent dining environment designed around everyday use.
The successful delivery of George Salter gave the Trust a basis for considering the same underlying estate challenge elsewhere.
Ormiston Chadwick Academy
The next project took Streetspace to Ormiston Chadwick Academy in Widnes, where the requirement was again for permanent additional dining and social provision.
The site and operational requirements were different, so the response was developed specifically for the academy rather than replicating the George Salter scheme. What carried across was the approach: understanding how the additional capacity needed to work, developing the design alongside cost and buildability, and integrating the new provision with the existing estate.
The completion of Chadwick strengthened the relationship with the Trust and established a growing body of experience that could inform subsequent projects without prescribing what they should look like.
The programme continues at Ormiston Flegg
In 2026, the relationship extended to Ormiston Flegg Academy in Norfolk, where Streetspace commenced a further dining extension.
Flegg takes the relationship into a third academy and another part of the country. By this stage, there is an established understanding of the operational pressure the Trust is seeking to address and the way projects need to be developed commercially and practically.
The response, however, remains specific to the academy. Existing buildings, available space, circulation, capacity and budget determine the project rather than a standard Trust-wide design.
That balance is important. Experience from earlier projects can make the development of subsequent schemes more informed and efficient, without assuming that the solution that worked at one academy should simply be transferred to another.
Building a programme one project at a time
What began with a single dining extension has developed into a wider working relationship with Ormiston Academies Trust.
The common challenge across the programme is additional dining capacity, but each academy has presented it differently. George Salter needed to relieve pressure on a main hall that was being drawn into lunchtime use. Chadwick brought its own site and operational requirements. Flegg extends the programme to another academy with a new set of existing conditions to work around.
That is where a continuing relationship becomes useful. Streetspace can carry forward an understanding of the Trust’s expectations, the commercial context and the practicalities of delivering work within its academies, while still beginning each project with the requirements of the individual school.
The result is consistency in the way projects are developed and delivered, rather than standardisation of the buildings themselves. Each completed project adds knowledge that can inform the next while allowing the design response to remain specific to its site, budget and use.
Discuss your estate plans
If similar capacity pressures are emerging across several schools, Streetspace can help develop individual projects within a more consistent approach to design, cost and delivery across the wider estate.