Trinity Academy

Trinity Academy Bradford has been transformed into a more connected, welcoming campus for 1,100 pupils aged 11–16.

Combining a new teaching and communal building with the refurbishment of existing accommodation and a new landscape strategy, the redevelopment brings learning, sport and social spaces together around the everyday experience of the school. The result is a campus with a clearer identity, better connections and facilities designed to support both the school and its wider community.

The redevelopment takes a considered approach to the existing school estate, retaining and improving a viable teaching building while replacing accommodation that no longer met the Academy’s needs. Alongside it, a new 3,646m² building brings together specialist teaching, sport, dining and shared facilities, creating a more cohesive campus rather than a collection of separate spaces.

The new building is organised around the way the school works day to day. Larger shared spaces, including the sports hall, main hall and dining facilities, sit alongside specialist teaching areas, while art, graphics and textiles are located at first floor. A Learning Resource Centre overlooking the playing fields provides a central resource for the whole school.

At the heart of the campus, the new and retained buildings frame a central courtyard, creating a natural meeting point and extending opportunities for learning and socialising outdoors. Landscape, planting and changes in level help knit the different parts of the school together and create a clearer journey through the site.

Flexibility has been built into the design to support the Academy as teaching needs evolve. A consistent planning approach allows different classroom types to work within the same underlying structure, with adaptable partitions and a coordinated approach to daylight and ventilation making spaces easier to reconfigure in future.

The architecture draws on its Bradford setting too. Textured buff brick responds to the sandstone character of the local area and its industrial heritage, complemented by contemporary cladding and a clearly defined entrance that gives the Academy a stronger sense of arrival and identity.

The completed redevelopment creates a school that is easier to navigate and provides pupils with a greater variety of places to learn, meet and spend time throughout the day.

Outside the classroom, sport and physical activity form an important part of the campus. The masterplan significantly increased the overall area dedicated to sports provision, from 39,418m² to 49,965m², introducing additional opportunities for football, mini-soccer, touch rugby, tennis and basketball alongside retained facilities.

The landscape is designed as an extension of the learning environment. The central courtyard supports outdoor teaching and quieter activities, complemented by social spaces, planting and green infrastructure across the wider campus. Together, these spaces give pupils more choice in how they use the school grounds while creating a stronger connection between the buildings and landscape.

The Academy’s role within its wider community also shaped the design. Key facilities, including the sports spaces, main hall and dining hall, can be used outside school hours while remaining separate from the rest of the school. This allows the investment in the campus to support activities and events beyond the school day.

Inclusive access is embedded throughout, with step-free entrances, accessible changing and hygiene facilities, carefully considered finishes and wayfinding helping create an environment that can be used confidently by pupils, staff and visitors with a range of needs.

Sustainability shaped both the new building and the wider approach to the existing estate. Retaining and upgrading viable accommodation reduced the extent of new construction, while the new building was designed around a fabric-first approach to reduce operational energy demand.

Natural daylight and ventilation are integrated into teaching spaces, with the building’s form and window design helping create comfortable learning environments while reducing reliance on energy-intensive systems. Air source heat pumps provide an efficient, all-electric heating solution, supported by photovoltaic panels to generate renewable energy on site. The new building was designed to achieve net-zero carbon in operation over the course of a year.

The landscape contributes to the environmental strategy too. Existing mature trees were retained wherever possible and supplemented with new trees, native and semi-native planting, hedgerows, species-rich grassland and habitat areas to strengthen biodiversity across the campus. Sustainable drainage measures are integrated into the external spaces, helping manage surface water while contributing to a greener school environment.

Together, these measures create a campus designed not only around the needs of the school today, but around its long-term environmental performance and adaptability.