Thurrock Council in Essex is currently in the process of consolidating all the specialist schools in the region onto one site in Sockets Heath, Little Thurrock. The site, which is still under construction, will eventually house a number of special needs schools, ranging from pre-school to sixth form levels.Treetops School, the second school in this relocation scheme, recently opened on the Sockets Heath site, with a comprehensive lighting system by Concord Lighting, working with David Bedwell Consultants and Munro Building services. Treetops is a primary school aimed at young people between 5 and 12 with special needs and disabilities – and as the school caters for all pupils' academic and social needs, the lighting requirements were extremely varied.
Ovation 65 is the main lighting element within the school – in fact, more than 300 units are used throughout this new learning facility. In the classrooms, individual runs of 2x35W silver, dimmable Ovation 65 luminaires, with integral emergency capability, are wire-suspended just below ceiling height. This effective direct/indirect lighting solution offers bright, uniform illumination on the classroom desks as well as distributing light onto the ceilings above.
In the four main corridors of the diamond-shaped school, Ovation 65 is used in a different way – here it is cantilevered from the walls at high level, using rods. As well as providing direct/indirect lighting to the corridors, the luminaires also highlight the school's timber architectural features. In most spaces, the luminaire is fitted with wall brackets of different lengths to maintain a linear horizontal line along the corridor.
Elsewhere in the school, white Opaline 38W wall lights are specified for the washroom areas, while 28W Sterling bulkhead exterior wall-lights, with semi-circular hoods, are used in the open-air playground. An unusual feature of this design is that this area is situated in the centre of the building, for safety reasons.
