Jedburgh Grammar Campus

Jedburgh Grammar Campus radically reimagines the spatial form of a Scottish secondary school, incorporating it into a whole new learner journey and experience starting with early years transitioning through to employment. This is to address a mental health crisis that our young people are facing that is compounded by institutional school architecture and a learning straight jacket that suits traditional teaching and not young learners.

Currently the idea of nurture in Scottish education is a feature limited to early years. The transition from primary to secondary education presents a definite empathetic cut off point. Despite the enlightened theory of student-centred learning embedded in Scotland’s progressive 3-18 Curriculum for Excellence our partitioned secondary ­environments and related reactive teaching practices are failing our children. The driving force behind our design is the pupil’s taking ownership over their space encouraged to curate their own learning.

Our design avoids the typical routine of high school where students are dislodged between lessons hourly to traipse between generic classrooms to any of sixteen subjects. Year group clusters that reflect the curriculum learning stages provide space for; gathering, presentation, listening, reading, socialising, retreating, cooking, making and studying all interlinked in the one volume.

With the exception of the early and primary year education areas all other spaces are public facing, including the food science, art, craft and technology space. The building is curated and programmed to strike a balance between educational and community needs, recognising that the overlap of these is part of the magic that will reinforce positive culture and citizenship.

The material specification and construction approach to the design and delivery of Jedburgh was heavily influenced by our energy performance brief. We confirm that Jedburgh is the most efficient completed school campus building exceeding 10,000sqm built in Scotland. Jedburgh has an EPC 'A' rating with a predicted energy use of 64kWh/m2/pa. The actual energy use is still to be established given that the school has only opened but is expected to significantly improve upon the baseline standards.  

The Campus aims to strengthen Jedburgh as a learning town; where the ritual of intergenerational education is embedded in the character and quality of the place and where community togetherness is reinforced.