General Introduction to Project
Mayfield Primary is a new build school replacing the 1970s primary and was built on the existing site. The opportunity for relocation on the site raised access issues. The access road was changed to allow entry by children to be completely separated from the public. Children now have three separate entrances, depending on age/stage in the school, each taking them into their own set of cloakrooms and toilets and then into their classrooms.
The building provides shelter incorporating large canopies for the children not only from the rain but also from the sun, which allow greater use of the outdoors.
This school is included as a case study because of the way in which the school and the council have taken the opportunity presented when building a new school to address a number of the previous problems. Some of these are unique to this school and others more general. The school now:
- offers better options for children to walk or cycle in to school
- features toilets which are designed to be bright and well finished. The toilets have also been structured to reduce the chance of bullying. Overall the school was designed to help alleviate bullying problems, and this has reinforced the school's no tolerance approach
- makes the best use of the location and orientation of the building in relation to conflicts between views and climate issues, proving that one need not compromise the other