Client: Coventry City Council Location: Coventry Value: £3.7m

Design & Build

An expansion and refurbishment of the Cardinal Newman Catholic School, to provide an additional 200 school placements for 11–18-year-old students, through the construction of a new 400-student capacity dining hall, featuring an outdoor dining area and amphitheatre with tiered seating, built into a grass bank, along with the remodelling of existing classrooms to create optimised teaching spaces.

Procured through the Pagabo National Framework for Medium Works, this was the first scheme G F Tomlinson were awarded through the framework in its allocation region, covering projects between the value of £1-5m in the West Midlands.

The steel frame dining hall features a specialist pattern brickwork, inspired by the Architect. Internally, the hall includes frit pattern glazing, which features the St John Henry Newman and the school’s name in Morse code, along with acoustic panelling and oak cladding. The high-quality columns comprise of glass rock and reinforced plaster, which will keep the building cool in summer and warm in the winter.

Situated within a live school environment and close to adjacent occupied buildings, we carefully planned our works in liaison with the school to ensure minimal disruption and the safety of staff, students and visitors.

The new dining hall, which features an oval steel and concrete canopy to the front, includes a fully fitted catering kitchen, with a servery area and staff facilities, as well as a mezzanine upper floor for the use by sixth form students, with access onto the terrace area.

The previous refurbished areas now accommodate fit-for-purpose teaching areas, a technology room, science rooms with new laboratory furniture and seminar space.

“We are delighted with the building. We are hugely grateful to
G F Tomlinson for ensuring that we have both a functional and beautiful building.” – Emma O’Connor, Headteacher – Cardinal Newman Catholic School