Kensington Prep School shortlisted for Education Estates Awards

Date posted: July 11, 2019

ArchitecturePLB’s phased re-development for Kensington Prep School has been shortlisted for four Education Estates Awards, Innovation in Teaching and Learning, Inspiring Learning Spaces, Pupil/Student Experience and Refurbishment of the Year. The awards, supported by the Department of Education and the RIBA recognise the best projects across the education sector.

In 2012 Kensington Prep school set out to equip their girls for a changing world. Following a three-year exploration of teaching methods, they commissioned ArchitecturePLB to design the physical environment to facilitate these changes. An ambitious programme of refurbishment was designed to ‘create more opportunities for girls to experience self-directed learning, independent exploration and collaborative work.’ The result is a phased re-development which has transformed the school’s teaching and learning facilities.

The first phase created the ‘Explore floor’ a colourful, flexible space with interactive learning stations and a multi-media recording studio. 

As part of the redevelopment ArchitecturePLB looked at the latest research in education thinking to create a set of agile exemplar classrooms for year 4 which have been replicated for other year groups.

The latest phase, which completed in May 2019 has created a striking IT free library at the heart of the school, a calm and mature place to engage with books.

‘From the outset we were inspired by PLB; they bought new ideas and revitalised our projects. We were particularly impressed by the amount of additional research that was put into taking our ideas forward. Architecture PLB advanced our own thinking while generating creative solutions to the challenges we presented to them. We now have a spectacular open plan space that is being put forward for national awards and contemporary classrooms that are at the cutting edge of modern teaching; ArchitecturePLB has been an integral part of this exciting journey.’ Gareth Atkinson, Director of Finance and Operations

You can see the full Education Estates Awards shortlist here