High Peak school gets green light for new eco building

Combs Infant School will now be installing a circular eco-rotunda to help pupils get closer to nature, after Peak District National Park planning committee members went against a planning officer’s recommendation and approved the application.

Headteacher Rosemary Cook said: “We are all very excited to see this building arrive and we are looking forward to our young children enjoying their learning in such an innovative and inspiring space.”

The proposed classroom will be built almost entirely from locally-sourced British timber and will also have a wild-flower meadow on the roof.

Combs Infant School is to get a new rotunda-style outdoor classroom built in its grounds. Inset: the building design proposed.

The circular design means less 30 per cent less materials will be used compared to a traditional shaped structure, and it will require less energy to heat - making it ecologically sound.

The plans were approved after two previous applications for traditional-styled buildings were rejected.

A building of this style is one of the first to be championed by the authority as a complimentary feature to the heritage-style buildings of the national park.

Construction is due to start in April. Philip Kay, managing director of Rotunda Roundhouses, said: “There really is no better example of integrating nature and teaching the value of nature within the design and construction of modern school buildings.

“I believe this is the way forward for UK schools.”