Goodson Associates was appointed as part of the design team to build the replacement Broomland Primary School in Kelso through a 2 school appointment.

The school takes full advantage of its spectacular landscape setting with a design that quite literally reaches out to embrace the surrounding green space and woodland. The design developed a new generation school design inspired by the new Curriculum for Excellence which places an increased emphasis on external learning and external classroom provision.

The school incorporates space that can dynamically respond to different styles of learning whether that is in an intimate one to one basis or in larger clustered type teaching arrangements. Notably the school also takes advantage of an ideal orientation with classroom elevations facing either east or west to avoid glare, overheating and helping encourage cross ventilation. Community sports areas open up towards the south to create a complete learning campus environment.

The main structure is a braced steel frame, which also extends out to form the structure of the striking larch 20m clad cantilever roof over outdoor play areas. Cladding is predominantly a mixture of light glass curtain walling and rugged natural cobalt-hued stone-filled gabions mined from a local quarry. The steel frame also allowed the school’s light and airy interior assisted by a large 32-foot-tall atrium, lit by skylights, which opens the building’s insides to the sky.

With the building strategically located centrally on the site this creates external areas that are both welcoming and attractive but provide secure school grounds, with the provision of spaces for teaching and learning. Through the design of the externals and use of landscaping spaces were created that have an immediate positive impact upon arrival and help settle the building into it’s semi-rural and wooded landscape context.