Surrey Homes | SH41 | March 2018 | Fashion supplement inside

Education
Hazelwood School
What are the new facilities at the school? The Baily Building
is the first capital project for the school in over ten years. It is a
magnificent teaching facility which sits alongside the Old School
Building, reflecting the glory of that in the expanse of glass which
forms the main façade of the new wing.
Inside, there are fourteen teaching rooms, an Art Room, a
Music Room and a 450 seat auditorium. For the first time in
thirty years, the school’s Years 3, 4 and 5 cohorts are together
in one environment, purpose-built for inspired and engaged
teaching and learning.
What was the inspiration to invest in this particular aspect of
school life? The teaching and learning is at the heart of any great
school. Whilst an outstanding teacher can inspire and influence
in any environment, there comes a time when they, and the
children, deserve the very best. After thirty years of changing lives
in a ‘temporary Portakabin classroom’, the time had come to call
in the demolition squad and to bring these classrooms up to the
standard of the rest of the school’s exemplary facilities.
What are you most pleased with about the way the project has
turned out? The space is big and light, and has a life and a spirit
which exudes creativity and encourages independent thought. It
is colourful, vital and full of life. It was completed in just one year.
And it came in on budget!
The auditorium gives us a place where the whole school can
assemble. It looks stunning in any light and at any time of day
and the curves add a sense of elegance and grace to its scale and
magnitude – but there is not one thing we are most pleased with.
Everything about the building takes our breath away.
Did you use any specialist advisors or companies to design
or build the facilities? The school worked with an architect
specialising in educational facilities. Our brief was interpreted well
and challenged effectively. The resultant design perfectly translates
our vision and delivers way beyond our expectations. It is a
modern building sitting alongside a piece of tradition and history.
The reflections caught in the glass capture, and make heroic, this
potentially uncomfortable juxtaposition.
How have pupils – and parents - responded to the new
facilities? The whole school community loves the Baily Building.
The children and teachers enjoy its style, space and light and our
parents are proud to have it within the school estate. All are in
agreement that it is no ordinary teaching space.
Do you have any plans for other new projects? The Baily
Building is Phase One of a Masterplan for the development of
the school site. Future phases are planned once we have lived and
loved the Baily Building for a little longer. It’s still too new and
wonderful to think of passing it over in favour of another project!
Hazelwood School, Wolfs Hill, Limpsfield, Oxted, Surrey RH8 0QU 01883 712194 hazelwoodschool.co.uk
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