Hobson & Porter, Innovation based on tradition

The new Maybury Primary School

A restaurant rather than a canteen

When she looks around her new multi-million pound school, it is hard for headteacher Claire Patton to conceal her joy."It is like having 20 Christmases at once," she says, the smile never leaving her face.

She has every reason to be pleased. Maybury Primary School officially opened last week and is being held up as the shape of schools in the future. The first new school to be opened under Hull City Council's Transforming Our Primary Schools programme, it has been designed to take education into the 21st century and beyond.

Maybury Primary in east Hull has used the best in green, eco-friendly design, from its rainwater harvest system on its roof to the bright and airy central atrium, which uses natural light to full advantage, reducing energy from conventional light sources. The Maybury Road school's heating comes from underground heat sources and the building has automatic controls for heating and lighting. The school was designed by city council architect John Elliott and is purpose-built for its 210 pupils and 26-strong nursery.The children moved in earlier this month, just days before the official opening last Friday. The ribbon was cut by former caretaker Fred Robinson, who has recently retired and attended the school as a pupil himself.

"The kids have been absolutely delighted," said Ms Patton."The children, the parents and staff are happy and excited about it. We know how lucky we all are."

As part of the preparation before building work began, Mr Elliot and a delegation from the school visited Gateshead, as well as Denmark and Sweden, to view advances in ecological design that could be used in the new building.Central to the design is its state-of-the-art kitchen and dining room, reinforcing the message that Maybury's pupils are important.

The furniture is bistro style and it is fully carpeted to ensure children enjoy eating the healthy food on offer.

"We don't have a school canteen," said Ms Patton. "We have a school restaurant. We have a chef, not a school cook and the children can see him preparing the food. It is a dining experience for the staff and for the children."

With the rainwater harvesting system on the roof, excess rainwater is collected in tanks before being used to flush the toilets. The school also has a central atrium, which allows in natural light to reduce the amount of energy required to power the school. It is also the first school in the city to have a sprinkler system installed, as part of a safety measure in the event of a fire.The school has been built by building firm Hobson and Porter next to the previous primary, which was built in the 1930s. The key element of the design is to promote a learning environment where children are happy to take the first steps towards a good education.

Although teachers have privacy to teach their classes, the school has an open feel, encouraging a sense of inclusion.

"Whenever you walk in, everyone says it is quite inspiring and it is a fantastic learning experience," said Ms Patton. "It is innovative, but our main aim is this new learning environment will improve our standards. Also, this is about the council investing in east Hull, in an area that has seen some regeneration, but they are still putting money and resources into the area."

City Council leader Councillor Carl Minns said the new school should be the shape of things to come. He said: "A lot of credit needs to go to the council's in-house design team and the builders for getting this one off the ground. There is a lot of innovative work that other schools we design now have to live up to. The rest of the country can learn from what we have done. What was interesting, walking around with the architects, is just how far behind this country is in comparison with others in Europe. They were showing me pieces of green technology that they have been manufacturing in Germany for 40 years, yet we are just starting to use this stuff here. It shows what may be innovative for this country, in terms of the rest of Europe, we are still way behind.This sort of design now needs to become standard in all new buildings."

Article courtesy of Hull Daily Mail