Discussing the plans for the school are (l-r) GSS partner Will Assheton, Head Teacher Mary Mihovilovic, Kier Eastern Director Paul Greenly and GSS team leader Jonathan Hunter.

A multi-million pound construction project, which will result in vastly expanded and improved facilities for St John Fisher Roman Catholic School, has commenced in Peterborough.

The scheme has been designed by GSS Architecture, which won the original task in competition with other leading architectural practices. The construction contract was then won by Kier Eastern on a "design and build" basis, and they invited GSS to carry on and complete the detailed design.

The new development will include a library; sports hall and all-weather pitch along with music, drama, and ICT rooms. These will be located around a courtyard garden with a chapel in the centre. The development will also include new and refurbished classrooms.

GSS have incorporated a number of environmentally sustainable features into the design. GSS partner Will Assheton explained, "These include ground source heat pumps which draw naturally occurring heat from the earth, solar hot water collectors mounted on the south facing roofs and a wind turbine located at the front of the school."

"To further enhance its green credentials," added Will, "a new classroom block will be constructed using laminated timber sourced from sustainable forests. This will provide an energy efficient building envelope and will be very quick to erect on the site. Once finished, the buildings will act as an educational resource with students able to monitor the amount of energy being produced using meters located throughout the site. You could describe the project as a lesson in sustainability."

As well as providing first class facilities, the new buildings will serve to highlight the importance of energy conservation to the students and the wider community, who will also have access to the facilities.

The client is the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia and the project is being jointly funded by the diocese, Peterborough City Council, and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).

A condition of the DCSF funding was for the new development to achieve a 'very good' Building Research Establishment Energy Assessment Model (BREEAM) rating. This aims to help designers deliver best practice and to consider the broad environmental concerns of climate change, resource use and impact on wildlife.