Elverby Primary School, Milton Keynes East
Overview
Elverby Primary is a recently completed three form entry school, which is part of the Milton Keynes East Strategic Urban Extension Development. The new school will provide education facilities to the rapidly expanding local area, with the wider masterplan looking to offer 5,000 new homes upon completion.
SBS Cladding worked with sub-contractors Stoneguard to supply over 400sqm of Hardie® Panel fibre cement cladding and NVELOPE framing to the education building. The project was designed by GSS Architecture and managed by Ashe Construction.
Concept to completion
It was important to the architects, that the wider development utilised a limited palette of materials to ensure that the scheme had a consistent and coherent appearance. To contrast with the residential properties, it was decided that any non-residential buildings would form focal points across the development, with a different palette of colours used to make them stand out in the streetscape.
Hardie® Panel was able to offer the perfect solution for this education project, with its A2 fire rating and BBA certification. Alongside these technical specifications, the fibre cement cladding has an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) which states that Hardie® Panel has the lowest CO2 emissions amongst other A2 rated facade materials, as well as a long product life cycle. On a building that will be a focal point of the area for years to come, these benefits made the cladding material an ideal choice.
The other materials selected for the primary school consisted of dark blue and cream bricks, to create a striking contrast against the Anthracite Grey Hardie® Panel cladding. The vertically installed panels feature visible screw fixings and have been utilised on soffits to create a uniform and modern finish.
Completed in 2025, the school will open to its first cohort of students in September 2027, when residents have moved into the not yet built homes on the surrounding site. The school will provide 630 primary places, alongside 39 nursery places. Further down the line, a secondary school is due to be built across the road, making the primary the first part of a future all-through school.
The project has already garnered recognition for its design and construction, having been shortlisted in two categories at the 2025 Facade Awards. The main contractor, Ashe Construction, and the manufacturer of Hardie® Panel, James Hardie, have been nominated for Best New Build (Education) and Best Use of Fibre Cement Cladding Panels.
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