Why Sharrow is more than just a school to pupils and community
Sharrow Primary School head Lynne Ley and assistant head Evelyn Abram on the nature reserve roof

Date: 31 July 2009
By David Bocking

Many of our children live in flats or with extended families, so space is at a premium for them."

Traditional classrooms are from a Victorian mindset, she suggests. Corridors were ruled out (unused spaces for much of the day where problems can happen when children are squeezed together, Lynne explains). So were grills and shutters.

"Shutters and grills say keep out, but we want to say come in, not keep out."

The design of the building helps with behaviour too. The open classrooms and lack of corridors and the way everyone has to get along together has cut down on the traditional primary school squabbling in out of the way places.

"We never realised it would have so much impact," says Evelyn. "But everyone noticed that behaviour has improved."

And finally, the governors instisted on making the building sustainable for the future, so it was well insulated, a ground source heat pump was installed to provide heat and cooling from the temperature of the earth, and rainwater harvesting provides virtually all the water for the toilets.

"To start with, when we flush our toilets the water is yellow because the rainwater comes through the organic material on the roof, so the kids say 'Urgh, nobody's flushed the toilet.' But eventually that will be clearer."

That's the idea, says Lynne, but in the meantime all the kids are learning about sustainability by taking part in it themselves.

The roof itself is likely to be designated as an official local nature reserve: it's a 'biodiverse' rather than 'green' roof, and is designed to recreate the plants and insect life on the Sharrow ground.

As such, as well as helping alleviate flooding and cooling the summer classrooms, the roof is a boon for nature study covering wildflowers and insects.

The school's "Construction Buddies' blog (narrated by two bears, 'Brix' and 'Morta' ) details the whole process from planning the school, to building, to turning up at award presentations.

'We're off to another awards ceremony and big dinner (we'll have to start watching our waistlines soon)," said the bears recently before picking up the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' Design and Innovation award to add to the gongs and praises from the Sheffield Design Awards, the Society of Chief Architects of Local Authorities, the Royal Institute of British Architects and Architectural Ironmongery journal.

And the children have recognised the qualities of the building as much as RIBA.

"One nine year old came up to me and said it doesn't feel like a school," says Lynne, with some pride. "It feels like a college."