Broadclyst Community Primary School (BCPS) in Exeter, rated outstanding by Ofsted, was founded in 1810 to serve the children of the local community. Still a community school, now with its own 36-place nursery, it is part of the Cornerstone Academy Trust, a multi-academy trust that provides 21st century education across two schools as well as professional teacher training through the Cornerstone Teaching School.

Working with architect, NPS South West, and contractor, Midas Construction, Style was specified to deliver a moveable wall solution that would make best use of the main hall.

Like any school, the hall is used for a multitude of activities every day, ranging from assemblies, PE, music, dance and becoming a refectory each lunchtime.

Key criteria therefore include, the ability to reconfigure the room quickly and with ease, good quality acoustic integrity so that concurrent activities can be run either side of the wall undisturbed, durability to cope in a busy school environment and the ability to complement the interior design of the hall.

DORMA Variflex was chosen as the ideal moveable wall to achieve this. This superb product is ideal for very high ceilings (such as school halls), offers sound reductions up to Rw 60 dB, a 30 minute fire rating and the panels are manufactured separately to the frame. This means they are interchangeable and easy to swap if one is damaged or scuffed in a school environment.

“We created a flexible room configuration using two Variflex operable walls,” said Julian Sargent, Style’s group managing director.

“This enables the school to either open the entire area up into one huge hall, or sub-divide it into smaller areas, such as the refectory at lunchtime, or at other times of the day when more than one activity is taking place at the same time.”