Whinhill Primary School

Aug 2012

Whinhill Primary School (formerly Overton Primary School and Highlanders Nursery) is a 15 form school set on a steeply sloping hill location in Greenock.

The project for Inverclyde Council involved the intensive refurbishment and extension to the existing Primary School to form a fully modernised building. On completion the school consists of a Nursery and specialist Gaelic language unit, offering placements for 450 school and 50 preschool children. The large extension part of the project comprises of classrooms, a music room, toilets and cloakrooms.

The original 1973 accommodation was remodelled and fully refurbished with new windows, doors, roof covering, insulation render finish externally, new built furniture and fittings, suspended ceilings with full redecoration throughout.

The main issue was to convert an outdated early 1970s building into a school which is both a pleasure to teach and to learn in, and one that fully conforms to the needs of the modern school curriculum. A significant part of this was achieved by very sympathetic extension and landscape treatment to soften the building surroundings.

A sustainable solution was required within the brief. To achieve this, natural ventilation was incorporated throughout by using “windcatchers” in the zinc roof. SPACE & PLACE also maximised natural lighting and installed SUDs extensively. The project also included the fitting of roof mounted photovoltaic panels and the use of a high performing glass. Instead of secondary steel S&P used timber in order to reduce the school’s carbon footprint considerably.