The Girls’ Day School Trust appointed BD alongside long-term collaborators Hawkins\Brown to develop a concept which would transform their tired and inaccessible junior school grounds. This constrained site is set within the beautiful, leafy historic suburbs of Ealing, with the wider campus being home to the school since 1930.
The designs provide a high-quality teaching environment both internally and externally. The architecture provides new classrooms and specialist spaces for a library, arts, music and IT, alongside an integrated landscape which has resolved the previous accessibility issues around the site.
As pupils and parents approach the school, they will note its hugely improved street presence. The school is friendly and visible, with a clear entrance and welcome for pupils, carers and visitors. This sets the school as a key local building, enhancing its local area through sensitive incorporation of existing trees and hedgerows, plus options for stepped and flush entrances into the building.
We really enjoyed the careful development of the designs alongside the school. One of the main aims of the landscape design was to create coherent and accessible routes throughout a site with very complex levels, so that pupils could easily navigate it. We also wanted to maximise opportunities for learning outside the classroom.
We designed a series of high-quality external spaces to support the built form. These include a planted welcome garden, forest school and outdoor teaching space, plus a separate and secure reception year play space. Each area carefully considered the combination of play and learning to give that holistic, hard-working landscape the school required. A plethora of new trees – including maples, birches, and small-leaved limes – provide an intimate, sheltered landscape with all the benefits of shade, bird and insect life, plus autumn colour.
“With a science garden, forest school area, dedicated play area for Reception pupils and an additional playground for other year groups, the outside space is beautifully landscaped with lots of trees and is integral to making learning a hands-on experience.”
Emma Santamaria (Senior Associate, BD
