This project is one of eight we have delivered for the London Borough of Newham, to address the demand for an additional 45 to 50 forms of entry (9,500 to 10,500 school places) and provides additional accommodation enabling the school to expand its capacity from by one form of entry. Newham’s birth rate rose from 4,800 to 6,350 between 2002 and 2010, a rise of 32%. Together with a recent increase in inward migration and one of the largest regeneration programmes in Europe, this has led to a significant additional demand for primary school places. Newham estimated that an additional 45 to 50 forms of entry (9,500 to 10,500 school places) were going to be required between 2008 and 2014-15. The purpose of this project was to provide additional accommodation that would allow Kensington Primary School to expand its capacity from 2 forms of entry (2 x 7 x 30= 420 places for children) to 3 forms of entry (3 x 7 x 30= 630 places for children). Kensington Junior mixed school was opened in 1901 as an Infant board school; several changes have been made to it since. Prior to the extension, the site housed a number of brick buildings as well as temporary units that had provided useful accommodation but were to be removed by the end of the project. The main building of the complex is the centrally positioned two-storey Victorian school with mezzanine levels which contains the older children and staff accommodation. Part of its 2nd storey was lost due to bomb damage during WWII, resulting in a flat roof. A single storey accommodation to the south and west of the school houses the main entrance, office space, nursery and reception teaching areas, a dining hall, kitchen and year 1 classrooms. A series of linked single storey pavilion buildings had been erected for the former Infant school, which although useful, contributed to a feeling of separation between the different buildings. One of the purposes of this construction project was to create a more harmonious set of school buildings providing better links to ensure a whole school was created. Shepheard Epstein Hunter had worked with Morgan Sindall, London Borough of Newham and the School to develop the feasibility proposals to planning stage. The construction of a number of additional classrooms on the second floor, encompassing the area of the open roof- terrace at second floor level, was identified as the preferred means of providing the additional capacity. This essentially reinstated the original form of the building, restoring the third storey that had been lost to bomb damage. Careful consideration was given to the visual impact the addition would have, and how it could be designed to ‘fit in’ with the surviving Victorian elements (e.g. the higher central part of the southern elevation). Initially, the proposals were for a number of bigger classrooms with no central space; later, in conjunction with the school, the layout of the top floor was modified to become smaller classrooms arranged around a central group room, which replicates the existing layout of the school and provides it with much needed flexibility. An extension to the Kitchen and Medical Room at ground floor level was also proposed to provide sufficient catering capacity to serve the increased number of children. Other changes included the creation of lobbies on some of the mezzanine floors as well as the insertion of a new platform lift to make the principal storeys accessible. Some minor improvements were made to outdoor spaces; Mesh Partnership with Shepheard Epstein Hunter developed an outline masterplan for the site that divides the site into four broad areas with transition zones between.
