Greenbank Preparatory School has opened ‘The Classroom of the Future’
The multi-award-winning independent primary school on Heathbank Road in Cheadle Hulme unveiled the new Reception classroom after spending £600K during a 30-week building programme.
Designed by Manchester architects Walker Simpson, the Janet Lowe classroom “will set the standard for generations to come,” according to Associate Director John Piercy Holroyd, “it is the classroom of the future.”
A previous winner of the Independent Schools’ Association’s National Eco School of the Year, Greenbank’s priorities were both educational and environmental.
Named after much loved former Headmistress Janet Lowe, who helped specify the original plans before retiring in 2019, the classroom is light, airy and fully equipped with a canopy for outdoor play, a wet play area and an all-weather mini playground.
As part of Greenbank’s continuing redevelopment programme, it replaces an old single storey flat roof construction with the latest environmental techniques.
John Piercy Holroyd added: “We have maximised the use of all available space and driven forward the school’s green culture to use the very latest eco-friendly construction methods.”
“It is built out of 100per cent recycled materials, has thick mineral wool insulation in the walls and roof, uses an underground heat pump and has no powered ventilation but uses natural light and roof windows in the high and spacious ceiling.”
“We pivoted the building to create room for a hangar space for outdoor play in bad weather and reclaimed what was unused land at the rear to make an all-weather, safe play area.”
Current Headmaster, former Great Britain canoeist, Malcolm Johnson said: “It very much conforms to Janet’s original vision and creates a large open space in which the children can choose their own activities and explore the world around them.”
“The Reception Class is both the entry point to the main school but also the last year of the EarlyYears Foundation stage and this classroom is the perfect setting for the children to pick and choose their own activities and develop their curiosity and collaborative skills, while also being more formally taught so they can develop the very strongest academic foundations.”
“It is exactly what we planned and has been expertly delivered by the architects and builders who worked in a happy partnership with us while the normal school day continued.”
Adrian Rooney, the Managing Director of Greenwood Builders, said: “We had a number of very special challenges: working in a confined area where we could not interfere with the school day and the challenge of tendering in a highly inflationary period due to Covid, but it was delivered on time and to the very highest standards.”
Janet Lowe, who was Headmistress from 2007 to 2019, is pictured cutting the opening ribbon with her own granddaughter Ella and fellow pupil Rupert, said: “The Early Years at Greenbank are outstanding: the Nursery, Pre School and Reception teachers and staff provide a wonderful start to a young child’s life, but the building did not support what we were all trying to achieve.
“Now this new building provides an ideal environment for four-to-five-year-old children and will ensure our future and their futures for generations to come.”
