Hopton Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School

A post-war primary school designed by West Suffolk County Council's Architects' Department, led by Jack Digby FRIBA. The job architect was James Blackie and the school was completed in 1973. It was subsequently altered and extended when Suffolk County Council reverted to a two-tier education system in 2007.

MATERIALS: the school is built with lightweight, window walling beneath a flat, metal roof deck, with deep wooden fascias, supported on steel stanchions. The corners of the teaching areas and the block containing the staff room, kitchen and boiler room, are built of brick.

PLAN: the main body of the school is square on plan with a central hall, surrounding teaching areas, curved ' turrets' to each corner and a projecting block with curved frontage walling to the centre of the east elevation, now partially enclosed within an early-C21 extension to the north-east corner of the site.

EXTERIOR: the school is single-storied with window walling set back below the overhanging flat roof. The entrance elevation has curved brick walling to the left of a C21, angled, glazed entrance area, accessed via double doors with flanking windows. Set back at the south-east corner is the first of four, curved brick corner turrets, linked by wall panels with undivided glazing set below a clerestory band that is carried into the otherwise blind brick turret walling. The walling incorporates glazed doors, with sidelights, to each elevation that give access to the teaching areas flanking the central hall. The north-west, south-east and south-west corners of the building have cross-braced steel stanchions which support the roof deck, set beyond the faces of the curved turrets. The west elevation has two additional stanchions between the south-west and north-west corners. At the north-east corner, the turret is partially enclosed by an early-C21 brick, single-storey extension created to provide an additional teaching area, office accommodation, entrance foyer and corridor access to the main body of the school.

INTERIOR: the four original teaching areas are arranged around a sunken central hall. It is accessed by means of a wide flight of steps that extend from the teaching area on the eastern side. The hall ceiling incorporates a grid of roof lights, and is supported on lightweight, steel lattice girders. Horizontally-boarded screen walls with blind clerestory lights separate the hall and the surrounding teaching areas on three sides, with wooden doors incorporating low-level glazed panels approached by short flights of steps giving access to the teaching areas in the south-west and north-west corners. The north-west and south-east turrets now contain toilets for the adjacent teaching areas, whilst the south-west turret forms part of the library area.