Q3 Academy is a new build secondary school for 1000 students and 250 sixth formers, occupying a challenging sloping greenbelt site located alongside the M6 motorway in Sandwell.
The Academy was one of three new city academies within Sandwell complementing Sandwell’s BSF Programme. Closure of the existing school was a very sensitive issue, one that generated strong public opinion especially with a change of school name. To overcome anxieties, Ellis Williams led initiatives for public open evenings, stakeholder presentations and student workshops to assist in answering questions and ensure that the community became part of the process and took ownership of their new building. We facilitated workshop sessions with students to decide upon the name of the new Academy, the new uniform design, and the new school badge. All events were well attended, very successful and the project proceeded with full support of all stakeholders.
Awards
IStruct Midlands Education Building of the Year
The Academy specialises in Design & Technology, Business and Enterprise. Throughout the building, spaces have been designed to reflect the precise requirements of each of the school faculties or ‘companies’. Circulation spaces connecting each department have been modelled to provide interest and provide areas of active learning in order to deinstitutionalise the design generally. This concept is further echoed in the external appearance of the new building, whereby bold, simple lines seek to convey a forward-looking, technology driven school, one that embodies the dynamics of teaching and learning in the 21st Century.
