St. Crispin’s School

A brick wall with a circular metal sign showing a tree and "st crispin's" beside a metal embossed lettering of the name of the school

Opened: February 2022

Location: Burdiehouse, South East

Age range: 4 – 18 years

  • The exterior of the building's main entrance, a white car is parked in the drop off bay. The building front is mainly a warm coloured wooden cladding. A mixture of brickwork and metal gives different texture
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • The school building exterior of the pool, with green door, brickwork and large windows at the top with a leaf design
  • The entrance sign on the gate saying "welcome to St Crispin's school" in background is the new school building

St Crispin’s school provides a positive, supported learning environment for pupils aged 4-18 years with additional support needs.

Inspired by Nature

  • Corridor with grey flooring, the left wall is yellow with natural wood cut out relief of leaf and flower patterns
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • Corridor with grey flooring, the left wall is blue with natural wood cut out relief
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • An open space between rooms, in the foreground is a rounded triangular stool, in the background two sofas facing eachother with a coffee table between. The room has grey flooring, the walls are yellow with natural wood cut out relief of leaf and flower patterns
  • Designs of the corridor patterns

The artwork for St. Crispin’s has been inspired by nature found around the school. There are four main themes, the meadow, wildflowers, woodland and the braid burn. Emily Hogarth Illustrator, was sent some initial artwork from the children that helped inspired shape form, content and narrative.

Within the braid burn section she created arches which were inspired from a painting that contained these shapes (fish by Levi). She was also inspired by the leaf rubbings and shapes that were created and took these shapes as inspiration for the woodland leaves (Craig orange, Nicola and Harry’s illustrations helped inspire the leaf shapes). We very much wanted the school to have a sense of identity and flow to the artwork throughout the building. From a distance the shapes will be recognisable as leaves, flowers, plants etc but while walking through them they should create a more abstract texture and interest to the walls. Our aim was to create designs that would enhance the space for pupils, teachers and staff – making it a space that was beautiful as well as functional and to bring some of natures inspiration into the building.

Classrooms

The learning and teaching spaces throughout the building make the most of the desire to provide flexible learning environments with natural colours and materials that promote wellbeing and support inclusive practice. The classrooms are flexible and agile learning spaces, with bespoke focus booths. Fixed and agile sections of Velcro receptive pin boarding are sited throughout the space to assist with the use of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) negating the requirement of Velcro receptive strips to be stuck to surfaces.

  • A classroom with hexagonal table and blue chairs in foreground, interactive screen on the far wall beside a sofa and stools and washing unit in background
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • Classroom with large open floor space, bright large windows and natural wood floor and cupboards. pink and blue cushions on soft benching in front of an interactive screen and a blue armchair and footrest in the corner
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • a kitchenette with oven, hob, fridge and sinks.
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • A classroom with a figure of eight shaped table and blue chairs in foreground, interactive screen on the far wall beside a couple of sofas
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • Corner of a classroom showing interactive screen on the wall, wooden storage cabinets and a portable white board
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • Classroom showing comfortable sofas and armchair in front of interactive screen
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • A classroom with hexagonal table and blue chairs in foreground, interactive screen on the far wall beside a sofa and stools and washing unit in background
  • Two natural wood focus booths, a square stool sits under a desk with three high sides. Numbers and images are stuck onto the pinboarding on the central wall of the booth
  • A close up of the velcro pinboard with two pictures stuck on

Playroom

  • A room with natural wood play furniture, a pinboard on the wall and some box shelves
  • A playroom with natural wood floor and storage cupboards with sink, colourful leaf shaped soft cushions are on the floor

Sensory

The swimming pool, soft play and sensory studios echo the natural wayfinding elements inspired by engagement with the pupils, with natural colours and pallet of materials, combined with playful designs. The bespoke agile Velcro receptive stands can be used in these spaces to allow the pupils to engage with the PECS even whilst in the swimming pool.

A beautiful sensory studio has been created using projectors and lights. A sensory room provides a wonderful space with elements to explore and a soft play room is a great feature for the school.

  • A room with projectors displaying images on the walls and floor of a whale, fish and coral, a light panel is on the right side wall
    sensory studio
  • sensory studio
  • A room in dark purple light, with projectors displaying images on the walls of a city scape with bridge at night, a light panel is on the right side wall
    sensory studio
  • A soft play room, cushioned floor, benching, steps, tunnels and a ball pit
    softplay
  • A room lit purple, a mixture of large and small cushions are against the walls, a basket, cushioned floor and wall panels and LED strings and bubble lamp
    sensory room
  • A light square panel and infinity tunnel are inset into the cushioned wall panels. lit LED strings and bubble lamp lit up in front of a mirror
    sensory room
  • A close up of rainbow coloured tubes, a cushion, lit LED strings and bubble lamp lit up in front of a mirror
    sensory room
  • A swimming pool, in the foreground wide steps with handrails lead into the pool, the windows at the back have a leaf pattern on them
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • beside the pool is a triangular prism shaped stand with velcro pinboarding on the side and pictures stuck to it
    Agile velcro receptive stand by the pool

Quiet Rooms

  • A small room with sofa, stools, coffee table, cushions and rug. A homely space.
  • A small room with sofa in the corner, round table and chairs and colourful flower shaped cushioned floor mats.

Supporting spaces

  • An open space with soft furnishings
    Photographer Matt Livey, courtesy of Altro Flooring
  • a gym hall with wooden floor and basketball hoop
    Gym Hall
  • A homely room with two sofas in the corner beside a coffee table, a red upholstered rocking armchair, a square wooden table and chairs
    Multipurpose Room
  • Sofas are positioned around the edge of the room, a few upholstered chairs are the the far end and five coffee tables are in the centre
    Staff Room