Percy Main Junior School, North Tyneside

There are currently 218 pupils at Percy Main Junior School in North Tyneside.  In September 2009 the school introduced a house system based upon four north eastern landmarks; the Angel of the North, Tynemouth Priory, the Tyne Bridge and St Mary’s Lighthouse.   The school were keen to have these landmarks reflected in the school environment.

 

The Makeover Project

There are two multi-purpose halls in the school, one for the infants and one for juniors. The juniors hall is used for a wide variety of purposes but was in a poor state of decoration, so was therefore chosen as the space for the Big School Makeover.  The space has many uses; for dining, gym, assemblies, performances and circulation through the school.  The design of the space needed to be very flexible to allow for it's many changes of use. At the same time it needs to reflect the identity and work of the school as this is a space seen regularly by parents and visitors to the school.

BEFORE:

 

The Design

Architects from _Space came up with a concept by working with staff and pupils:

“The school had expressed an interest in doing something that represented their new four house system where each house is represented by a local landmark. By reflecting this in the design and using large symbols the children are given an instant connection with the scheme. The sense of pride they already have in their house system becomes connected with the new scheme and this almost guarantees that they will like the design. The children spoken to during and after the work all thought that the image representing their house was painted the best and held the most prominent position in the hall.

During student engagement sessions, the main discussion with the children did really come down to colours; each group wanted the whole scheme to be done in the colour associated with their house (red, yellow, blue and green). In the end it was agreed between the children that the best option was to go for a colour not used in the house scheme and purple was chosen for this reason.

The final part of the scheme was the stage; the old stage had been stored in an attic at the rear of the hall and normally took the caretaker a full day to put into place. The idea was to provide a new stage that was semi permanent. Whilst being big enough to be useful it had to be possible to keep it out of the way during lunch times. The folding stage idea came to light from this; it can be put into place within 5mins between two staff and is large enough for the annual school play and daily assemblies.”


The final result is one that is striking, bold, functional and practical as well as being a space that the pupils can have real pride in:

 

 The Big School Makeover at Percy Main Junior School took place on the 1st & 2nd October 2009.  Our thanks to the following companies who made the makeover such a success:

Architect – _space
Decoration - Purdy
Stage - Shanco
Access equipment – Speedyhire
Decorating equipment - Jewsons
Flooring - Desso
Structural design of stage - Cundall

 

and to the staff and pupils of Percy Main Junior School