We’re pleased to have secured planning permission for the new façade screening and nursery building, and we’re looking forward to starting on site soon.

Many schools built in the 1960s and 70s share the same problem: large areas of south-facing glazing that made sense before climate change, but now leave classrooms prone to overheating. Budgets rarely stretch to a full façade replacement or a reduction in glazing area, so the problem persists.

At St. Mary’s N8, we’ve taken a different approach. Rather than replacing the façade, we’re adding a tree-like screening structure that shades the building much as a tree canopy shades the ground beneath it, cutting solar gain and reducing overheating in classrooms.

The screening does more than manage heat, though. Schools from this era are often anonymous buildings, easy to walk past without recognising them as schools at all. The new façade gives St. Mary’s a distinct, welcoming identity that reflects the school’s role in nurturing and educating young children, turning a purely technical fix into something the whole school community can recognise and feel proud of.