Barony Campus by Sheppard Robson: Scotland’s new super school

Barony Campus by Sheppard Robson_Credit Keith Hunter (6)

Source: Keith Hunter

It has been described as the most innovative, ambitious and inclusive learning facility in the country. Thomas Lane hears how the client ditched framework procurement for a bespoke design

Known locally as the “super school”, the recently completed Barony Campus boasts an impressive list of facilities that would make most head teachers green with envy. Sports facilities include two full-sized, floodlit rugby pitches built to world-class standards, a 400m running track and 13 indoor courts. Other niceties include a 550-seat auditorium for concerts, complete with a recording studio and an immersive cinema. It also has a hydrotherapy pool that would not look out of place at a top hotel, a cafe and of course all the features commensurate with a state-of-the-art school.

The Barony Campus brings five schools together under one roof at Cumnock in East Ayrshire, Scotland. In many respects the 2,500-pupil facility harks back to the golden days of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme; architecturally and in terms of facilities the school has more in common with BSF than with the more recent Priority Schools Building Programme and its Scottish equivalent, the Schools for the Future programme and more recently the Learning Estate Investment Programme.

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