Aylesbury's new £35m secondary school on schedule to open in September 2022

Work on the new £35million, low carbon, Kingsbrook Secondary School and sixth form in Aylesbury, is well under way.

The flagship school, located at the Kingsbrook housing estate at Broughton Crossing, Bierton, is scheduled to open in September 2022 with plans to launch a new website promoting the school to the Aylesbury community, especially those with students who will join Year 7 in 2022.

The new school project is designed to meet the rising demand from housing growth across the town, offering 900 places to local students, as well as 180 sixth form places and a 32-place special education needs unit.

It will also support the newly built Kingsbrook View Primary Academy which welcomed pupils at the beginning of September, offering 420 places and a 52 place nursery.

As a flagship school for Buckinghamshire Council, Kingsbrook Secondary will offer a smaller carbon footprint compared to other schools with innovative technologies and state-of-the-art design to reflect the council’s commitment to investing in a greener future for Buckinghamshire. It will be run by Insignis Academy Trust.

The two and part three-storey 10,000 sq ft school will be heated by air source heat pumps and the use of structural insulated panels (SIPs) is expected to make the building cheaper to keep warm.

Bill Chapple, Cabinet Member for Environment said: “The heating and hot water will be carbon neutral delivered via high efficiency air-source heat pumps. The roof area will have space for 204 square metres of PV panels, generating approximately 28,600 kwh/year.

"The building emissions rate will have a 44% reduction in carbon emissions and will achieve the highest Energy Performance Certificate rating of ‘A’. The operational energy will be below 60 kwh/sqm/year, considerably lower than a typical low energy new school building which is typically around 80 kwh/sqm/year.

The design of the building has also reduced embodied carbon emissions by use of timber framed structural insulated panels that are used for all areas of external wall build-up.

Some of the school facilities, including the main hall and sports facilities, will be available for hire outside of school hours for the benefit of the local community.

Other amenities will include a “trim trail”, horticultural area, and library. In addition plans include two vehicle access points, maintenance access from Burcott Lane, staff parking, and a sports equipment storage area.

There will also be two minibus spaces, two for coach parking, and 13 electric vehicle (EV) charge points. There will be 114 car parking spaces in total, including visitor parking.

The building will be “futureproofed” to expand to 8FE and 10FE, “should demand necessitate”.

The school will employ approximately 100 staff.

The application site forms part of the Kingsbrook development, a “strategic urban extension” granted outline planning permission in 2013.

Work on the project started in the spring.