ABSTRACT
Elm Court School caters for up to 100, 11–16 age students with additional support needs. Formerly occupying a site with more than 50% temporary buildings, the school had developed over the years to provide extra specialist and general learning environments. While the Edwardian building was preserved externally – being situated within a conservation area – there was freedom to transform the internal organisation of spaces, providing environments that would complement the needs of a 21st century school. Teaching takes place within a classroom based system, which is necessary to keep teaching groups small and to minimise disruption and distraction. The classrooms are supplemented by small group rooms for ‘time-out space’, one-to-one work or staff meetings. ‘The new school demonstrates what is possible in creating a modern, well-equipped learning environment from an historic building.’.
