Brentwood Prep revamp will place School in Education Forefront

An artist's impression of the new Brentwood Preparatory School buildings

Brentwood School has secured planning permission for a major programme of improvement works at the Preparatory School which will see it at the forefront of cutting edge educational facilities.

The multi-million pound investment at the Prep School, in Middleton Hall Lane, will include new buildings, refurbishment and upgrading of existing buildings and improvements to external areas and landscaping.

The new and refurbished buildings will also result in an increase in the School roll; expanded and re-organised Early Years facilities; new Assembly and Dining amenities; and a suite of state-of-the-art specialist teaching areas.

The expansion will mean that from September 2019, the Prep School will be able to offer a full day’s Nursery provision from 7.30am to 6pm and, in response to the overwhelming demand for places, the School will also be able to offer 15 additional places in Year 3.

The project proposes three new buildings; a Dining and Assembly Hall, which will provide multi-purpose space for a variety of school activities, and support facilities including a new on-site kitchen and changing facilities.

A North Classroom Block will provide ‘front of house’ facilities for visitors and the School administration team and will streamline security. The top two floors of this block will house a suite of specialist teaching classrooms, including Science, Art. DT, ICT and a new ‘Futures’ Room to provide a space of experimentation.

A South Classroom Block will house a new nursery space on the ground floor with Year 6 classrooms on the first floor.

This exciting new development will also provide an opportunity to consolidate and re-structure the whole site strengthening current connections within the School campus and increasing external social and play space. It will also bring a greener quality to the place through new soft landscaping and trees and re-organise parking and drop-off strategies.

The new buildings will be constructed to high quality, low energy designs, and the architecture will respond to the historical context of Brentwood School and the listed structure of Middleton Hall, whilst providing cutting edge educational facilities which reflect the forward-looking attitude of the School.

Architects, Cottrell & Vermeulen Architecture, are no strangers to Brentwood School having worked on both the award-winning Sixth Form and Bean Academic Centres. In 2012, they were the winners of the 2012 RIBA Award for the Sixth Form Centre and in 2016 they secured a Brick Award for Best Education Building with the Bean Academic Centre.

Prep Headmaster Jason Whiskerd said he was delighted the project had been given the go-ahead. “This is a very exciting time for Brentwood Preparatory School which has a long and illustrious history; only last year we celebrated our 125^th anniversary.”

He added: “I would like to take this opportunity to reassure all our current parents that it will be business as usual while the build takes place and that careful plans have been put in place to ensure our extensive curriculum will continue unhindered and the day-to-day running of the School will remain unaffected.”