Caister Academy is a school for approx. 670 pupils aged 11-16. And what lucky pupils: the school is located on the Norfolk coastline and backs onto a beautiful sandy beach.
Established in 1950, Caister is a school embedded in its community and has developed a specialism in literature and the performing arts. It joined the Creative Education Trust (CET) in 2015, and in 2020 CET asked us to come up with a masterplan that improves movement around the school's dense collection of buildings and refreshes the learning environment.
Key challenges
- Pull the aesthetic together to unite buildings of different eras and architectural styles
- Create an entrance for visitors and students that is safe, clear and welcoming
- Design spaces for learning and socialising that offer more variety, inside and out
- Remove mobile classrooms long past their best
- Make the most of the school's relationship with the sea
We presented three options to the client team, who agreed unanimously on a new entrance block and relocating the library so that it becomes a beacon of learning with inspiring views out to sea.
