BSF Waltham Forest - Queens Road School

With an urgent need for more primary school places in the area, we gained planning permission on the site of an existing adult education centre in Queens Road to complete this Building Schools for the Future project. The building now acts as a local centre for learning, with community use an important new feature; it's a fully inclusive, functionally operational, secure and protected learning environment.

Three of the four existing buildings were demolished to make way for the new facilities, with the retained building refurbished and used for reception classes. Queens Road School now provides three entry classes instead of Edinburgh Primary School's single entry class, and 5,200sq m of space instead of the 2,400sq m spread across the three buildings being demolished. The primary school occupies the first two levels of the new building, with the adult education element on the third floor with its own dedicated entrance. A café at ground floor level serves the local community as well as students attending classes.

In addition to providing more efficient classroom facilities the new school is also energy efficient and environmentally sustainable. We designed the building with the aim of achieving a BREEAM status of ‘very good', incorporating a biomass boiler to provide 21.9% of the building's energy needs and rainwater harvesting to reduce water use by up to 24% compared to a conventional system.