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Appendix B – BREEAM UK New Construction scope and Education buildings

BREEAM UK New Construction 2014 has been tailored specifically for the assessment of the following educational establishments:

Pre-school, including;
1. Nursery schools1Nursery school/education means full-time or part-time education suitable for children who have not attained compulsory school age (whether provided at schools or elsewhere), i.e. facilities/buildings for the teaching of children who are between the ages of two or three to five years old.
2. Children’s centres2Children’s centres are multi-agency service hubs where young children and their families can receive early education, full day childcare, parental support and child and family health services, such as access to health visitors and health screening. Children’s centres will often be allied to a local primary school, on or adjacent to the school site.
Schools, including;
1. Primary schools
2. Secondary schools (including those containing sixth form colleges)
3. All age range schools (including education or teaching buildings at boarding schools)
4. Academies
5. Non-acute special educational needs (SEN) schools
Sixth form colleges
Further and higher education or vocational colleges and Institutions, including;
1. Teaching facility
2. Learning Resource Centre
3. Laboratory/workshop/studio
4. Student union
5. Or a mixture of the above types.

All age range schools and academies

All age range schools and academies can typically be assessed using the guidance/criteria applicable to secondary schools. In some cases, for these types of education establishments, it may be more appropriate to use the assessment criteria for further education colleges or primary schools. For example, where an all age range school or academy will contain functional or operational areas more akin to further or higher education buildings or where the needs of the accommodation and occupiers are similar to those of primary or early years pupils. Based on the information received about the proposed building, the BREEAM assessor should determine the most appropriate BREEAM criteria to apply in the assessment of the building.

Acute special educational needs (SEN) schools

Acute special educational needs (SEN) refers to children with severe disabilities/learning difficulties that prevent them from interpreting their surroundings without feeling anxious or distressed. These children can become easily distracted and/or over-stimulated. This group of pupils mainly include children with a behavioural, emotional or social difficulties (BEDS) and children with communication and interaction disability (autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)).

This BREEAM scheme has not been specifically tailored to assess acute SEN schools. However assessment using the methodology is still possible, except where highly specialised accommodation is provided. Acute SEN schools are therefore defined as an 'Other' building type and BREEAM assessors carrying out assessments on schools for pupils with such needs will need to consider carefully all the BREEAM issues that might be affected by the need to provide special facilities for such building users, e.g. View out, Cyclist facilities, etc. Where it is not explicit within this scheme document for this building type, the assessor will need to decide which, if any, building type assessment criteria is appropriate and apply accordingly, seeking confirmation from BRE Global Ltd. on the application of alternative building criteria where appropriate to do so.

For more information on SEN please refer to Building Bulletin 102 Designing for disabled children with special educational needs, published by the Department for Children Schools and Families (available from www.education.gov.uk)

Student residential accommodation

BREEAM New Construction can be used to assess boarding school residential and halls of residence accommodation buildings. These types of building are classified as a multi-residential accommodation building type for the purpose of a BREEAM assessment.