Project Spotlight: St. Andrew’s Primary School Upgrade

Supporting smarter school design

We’re pleased to share that we have been awarded the project for the refurbishment and upgrade of St Andrew's C of E Primary School. This project involves modernising the school’s systems to meet BB101 current standard for ventilation, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality in schools.

The current guidance replaces older standards and sets out stricter requirements for heating, cooling, air quality and ventilation, ensuring healthier, more comfortable learning environments for students and staff. It applies to both new builds and refurbishments, with a strong emphasis on calculated performance, regulatory compliance, and long-term maintenance.

For this project, our role is to carry out detailed calculations to determine the best-fit ventilation and heating strategy. Most classrooms today use hybrid systems combining natural and mechanical ventilation, and we anticipate that a Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) unit will likely be the right solution for the upgraded teaching spaces. If the main hall is included, it will require a separate system, and we’ll base all final decisions on the outcomes of our analysis.

We’ll also ensure the school meets CO₂ targets, thermal comfort guidelines, and appropriate ventilation based on age group occupancy, factoring in teaching staff and any additional considerations such as accessibility needs or temperature sensitivity.

We are upgrading an underused section of the school, with the goal to turn it into two intervention rooms, a covered chair store, PE store, and extending the current toilets. Some challenges include relocating existing air conditioning units and working around a low-level window line, which makes radiator placement more complex.

Our team is marking up the existing floorplans to show where all new electrical, heating, and plumbing systems will go. We’re designing detailed layouts identifying where to connect into the school’s existing systems, and ensuring drainage and water services meet demand even during peak use. As the new rooms will have no external windows, we’re calculating air change rates based on age group and occupancy to provide effective mechanical ventilation and meet all standards.

We will manage everything from performance calculations and system design to specifying compliant equipment and overseeing installation as needed. Our goal is to simplify complex requirements and deliver smart, energy-efficient solutions that make the planning and construction process easier for everyone involved.

If you’re planning education projects or working with BB101 compliance, let’s chat about how we can help.