Hawthorns Primary School, Tameside
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Summary
A BREEAM excellent rated SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) school in Tameside
Hawthorns is a state-of-the-art new primary school providing 220 places for children with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) in Mottram.
The stand-alone bespoke single-storey building features four early years classrooms, twelve classrooms dedicated to pupils with autistic spectrum disorder, and nine classrooms designed for pupils with moderate learning difficulties.
4,038 m2
Gross Internal Floor Area
220
pupils
30
electric vehicle charging stations
Building a sustainable future
Constructed to achieve the BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) Excellent rating, which sets best practice standards for the environmental performance of buildings, the energy efficient and sustainable design demonstrates Tameside’s determination to achieve Net Zero by 2038.
The exterior envelope is a SFS (steel framing system) inner leaf with facing brickwork and feature cladding, creating a calming entrance area. The roof is also clad with an area for solar panels.
Sustainably designed with a non-intimidating and calming materials palette, the school benefits from a library, training and family room, sports hall, and specialised teaching areas for art, drama, and life skills. With users’ health and wellbeing in mind, sensory gardens feature prominently.
The site also provides a modern Football Foundation specification grass pitch and a 3G pitch for use by the school and local community.
All material on site is segregated for recycling and less than 1% of construction waste was sent to landfill.
Aiding the transition for young people
We know that moving to a new school can be difficult and cause disruption to important routines. That’s why we held a series of engagement sessions, the first of which was with the parents of children attending the new school.
Progress photos were shared with the current school, so that pupils could see what is happening on site and be able to visualise what their new surroundings will look and feel like.
Overcoming challenges
Being located within a residential area, careful planning of deliveries was crucial to minimising disruption. To achieve this, we used Cloud Pass System and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) technology as standard which allowed pre-booked deliveries entry without the need for waiting.
Our team also carried out gritting the local roads during winter, demonstrating our proactive approach to maintaining smooth operations and fostering positive relations with local residents.
It’s these small but important steps that we take which make a huge difference to our customers and the people who live in the areas we operate. We call it the Robertson Way.
