Development of new sixth form and teaching centre for St Mary Redcliffe & Temple School.Located on the junction of Prewett Street and Somerset Street, Bristol.
Title of Projected Development: Development of new sixth form and teaching centre for St Mary Redcliffe & Temple School. Located on the junction of Prewett Street and Somerset Street, Bristol.
The proposal has been submitted to Bristol City Council for a pre-application assessment for the development of a new teaching centre and also Sixth Form facility for St Mary Redcliffe & Temple School on the corner site between Prewett Street and Somerset Street.
The proposal is to provide a building of approximately 4000 sqm for educational use, with the ground floor accommodation to deal with community as well as large teaching spaces.
The facilities will link to the redeveloped St Mary Redcliffe & Temple School and will also provide a much needed community facility, together with a Centre of Excellence and Learning for Bristol.
The buildings will replace the existing pub and auction house.
The Agent for the application is cube_design:
Jane Lock-Smith
Unit 12 Headlands Business Park
Salisbury Road
Ringwood
Hampshire
BH24 3PB
Tel: 07774 411931
Email:
In terms of attendees at the meeting on the 27th October, it will be Jane Lock-Smith from cube_design. This is on the basis that unfortunately it is half-term and as a result, the School are away on leave.
Synopsis:
The application, which has been submitted covers the corner site between Prewett Street and Somerset Street in the Redcliffe area of Bristol. St Mary Redcliffe & Temple School currently occupies a substantial part of this area in Bristol and includes the most recently developed school accommodation, which links to the existing sports and swimming pool facility.
The School has seen as a result of its success, a significant increase in the last 4-5 years in the demand for sixth form education, and foresees forthcoming increases as a result of the student bulge. Whilst the School utilisesDulverton House, which is a building located on Redcliffe Hill for its sixth form facility, it is inappropriate to the use and lacks flexibility for expansion of adaptability.
The building presents a shortage of reasonably sized classrooms, common room areas, auditorium and personal teaching areas. The sixth formers currently utilise all of the specialist accommodation within the main school building and therefore travel between the two sites for the educational teaching and links.
As a result, the School has considered the potential expansion for the sixth form and have identified the site of the existing auction house and The Bell Inn, together with a small garage site to provide the base for new sixth form and teaching centre facility.
The intention is to provide accommodation to take the growth of student numbers for the sixth form.
The intake for 2014 was 550 and it is anticipated that the expansion will extend and increase to approximately 700 – 800 students over the next couple of years. Therefore accommodation is required for these teaching facilities to be provided.
In addition St Mary Redcliffe & Temple school has recently become a member of a Teaching School Alliance. This honour is only conferred on “outstanding performance schools”. As a result, the School sees the opportunity to create a teaching/learning centre, which will offer to the centre of the city a base for all teachers and prospective teachers to gather together and share experiences and training. There is a need for a central space, with lecture theatre, breakout rooms and facilities for conference and training. This will support the Mayor’s strong theme of education being at the core and heart of the city.
Existing Building Stock:
The existing building stock, which is available to the School includes the Somerset Square site and Dulverton House site. The Somerset Square site is fully utilised with 1450 students occupying the building.
The Dulverton House site, an old insurance office building, was converted into classrooms in 2004. While it provides useful accommodation for the sixth form, it is inflexible and difficult to convert to provide appropriate teaching accommodation. It as limitations and shortfalls regarding common rooms, library, together with open and large teaching spaces for the sixth form.
Therefore, the vision for St Mary Redcliffe & Temple is to provide an inclusive and diverse place of excellence for Level 3: Post 16 education.
Young people at St Mary Redcliffe & Temple Sixth Form will be inspired to be committed to social justice and to put effort back into the community. This passionate energy at the heart of the city is transformational. The creation of a new teaching centre base in the heart, easily accessible by public transport would be a significant attraction for teachers at every point in their career, from starting out to becoming an established leader. This centre will be pivotal in establishing a learning city.
Policy Issues:
It is recognised that there are policy issues associated to the site, they are as follows:
The loss of a public house – Assessment has been undertaken regarding the loss of the public house and appropriateness and proximity of adjacent and alternative sites.
Residential loss of site – The corner garage site identified a potential site for residential. This item has been discussed in detail with the local authority and provision made for the corner site to be integrated for redevelopment for education.
The sites are identified in the Redcliffe Future Group’s SPD3 as mixed-use and commercial, together with primary residential. It is proposed within the masterplan to allocate Dulverton House to replace and provide commercial/residential use while reinforcing the educational strength for the Prewett Street and Somerset Street with a new sixth form and teaching centre facility.
There will be no implications to green space as a result of the proposals – trees facing on to Prewett Street and Somerset Street will be retained.
Character Analysis has been and in particular the massing and form of the building. The SPD3 identifies that the site can take three or four storeys.
The pre-application design proposals are concepts and are by no means indicative of the final proposals for the site. They just test the mass , bulk and the possible capacity of the site.
It is proposed that the building could provide approximately 4000 sqm of accommodation, in which 32 classrooms could be created. Indicative plans and massing diagrams have been produced to assess the proposals. These are all in line with the SPD3.
It is fully recognised that full detailed information would have to be submitted should the pre-application proceed further.
The School is committed to a sustainable design and will commit to achieving a ‘very good’/ ‘excellent’ BREEAM rating for the site.
We enclose for your attention the indicative material prepared for the project and trust that this is of use for briefing to the Panel Members.