Pupils Play Pivotal Design Role at New Churchill Academy & Sixth Form Facility

Pupils Play Pivotal Design Role

A brand new £1.3m Business Studies and Computing facility at Churchill Academy & Sixth Form in North Somerset has been designed with help from pupils.

A group of year 9s were given the chance to be directly involved in the state-of-the-art building's interior design, aided by the Dulux Smarter Spaces initiative, creating a brand new and brilliantly inspiring educational environment.

Churchill Academy, is one of many schools supported by educational charity the Outward Bound Trust (Dulux parent company, AkzoNobel's charity partner), which helps pupils develop their skills in the outdoor environment.

"Pupils were involved in the project from start to finish, understanding the entire process before selecting the colour palette for each room. this made the project especially unique since the pupils contributed to every level of the design process."

Yusuf Alharrari, Dulux Trade's Project Lead

Dulux oversaw the internal decoration process of the purpose-built space from conception to completion, which created an additional seven classrooms and three Offices.

Pupils at the school experienced a bespoke colour training session, which included lessons about the colour wheel, relationships between colours and how colour systems are created. Drawing upon pupils' knowledge of the school building and it's setting.

Two colour schemes were developed and voted upon by the pupils at Churchill Academy, with the scheme labelled "bright and exciting" coming out on top.

Involving students in the design process enabled a greater sense of connection between the pupils and their learning environment and also allowed them to mark their legacy on the school according to Mr Hildrew.

"I'm really thrilled with the end product; it's spacious, modern and everything we had hoped for. We're looking forward to phase two, which will see a brand new science and technology building with 12 labs and 2 catering kitchens for our students" Chris Hildew, Head Teacher, Churchill Academy