BDP-designed Leigh Technology Academy has bagged the title of ‘best outstanding new or refurbished secondary school in the country’.
The award celebrates and rewards the professionalism and flair of those teams making an outstanding contribution to primary and secondary schools in the maintained and independent sectors. The awards encompass new facilities, innovation in teaching, leadership and community involvement.
Leigh Academy, which opened in 2008, is a groundbreaking 1,500-pupil school, specializing in technology and information and communication technology (ICT).
The school consists of four colleges, all under one roof. The school design displays innovative ideas which are highly sustainable, and uses aspects such as orientation, passive cooling, earth tubes and passive ventilation to achieve 65% of the carbon emissions compared with Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) benchmarks. The facility features open learning terraces and classrooms around a day-lit winter-garden.
The Civic Trust and Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), named it as its project of the year.
The Times Educational Supplement (TES) is a weekly UK publication, covering the world of primary, secondary and further education, as well as teaching job vacancies.
