Sackville School, East Grinstead

Sackville School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form for pupils aged 11-18, located in East Grinstead, England. One of two state-funded secondary schools in the town, the school maintains a vision and values known as ‘The Sackville Way’, with emphasis on Respect, Kindness and being Prepared. Alongside Downlands, Imberhorne, and Oathall, the school is 1 of 4 institutions making up the Mid Sussex Federation of Schools.

Streetspace previously worked with Sackville School on the successful installation of an ORION Barrel Vault canopy in 2019, enabling additional outdoor dining and breakout space for pupils. Working alongside the school again on a new project, Streetspace provided the design, installation and enabling works of 2no. fabric canopies. These were 2 bespoke structures, designed to accommodate two external spaces and sloping ground on the school site.

The first structure was required to fit the external space outside the site’s P Block building. The school sought a creative, visually engaging design, with an ORION Shell Tensile Membrane canopy selected as a fitting solution, with its distinctive form ideal for both contemporary and traditional settings. The cable edge design is coupled with statement end posts, while a consistent eaves height provides appropriate weather protection year-round.

The school plans to incorporate benches in order to create an effective social and breakout area, with installation of the second canopy accompanying this function to create a dedicated space for Sackville’s 6th form students to eat, study and engage in social activity. 

The planned space for this canopy was originally intended as a memorial garden with benches, however, the school found they weren’t appropriate for the sloped surface, and it became under-utilised and overgrown over time. Seeking a solution to maximise use of the space, an ORION Barrel Vault canopy was designed to fill the area between surrounding buildings. Integral steel guttering was integrated to all sides to enable maximum weather protection, as well as over-length posts to allow a new block and beam floor to be installed that could provide a level surface for the new 6th form covered space.

Installation of the 2no. canopies were completed in September 2022. Providing weather-protected covered space for year-round use by pupils of the school, Sackville School now displays a collection of 3 attractive fabric canopies, designed with PVC fabric colours and a frame finish to coordinate with the architectural design of surrounding buildings on the site.