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A small Derbyshire village primary school is set to gain a modern “pod” instead of a building extension due to its restricted site and an historic neighbouring church.

Middleton Community Primary School in Main Street, Middleton-by-Wirksworth, which has just 94 pupils, needs more teaching space. However, the school has a heavily constrained site and also sits within a conservation area and opposite the Grade-II listed Holy Trinity Church, making expansion plans a tricky problem to solve with the school heading towards “minimum spatial standards”. This includes ruling out an extension and further shuffling the internal layout of the school.

A solution submitted by Derbyshire County Council is for a modern 15 square metre “pod”, built by SmartPod, measuring five metres by three metres – one of its “premium breakout pod” models – which would be constructed off-site and lifted into place. This would be placed on the current hard-court playground and would include a ramp for disabled access.

The council says: “The building is specific to the education sector and meets the needs of the school and will be constructed off-site. A limited amount of enabling/ground works will be required in advance of the installation thereby limiting the amount of disruption brought about by a construction phase using traditional methods. The purpose of the development is to alleviate the school’s accommodation constraints.

An artist's impression of what the school pod would look like. Image from Derbyshire County Council.

“The proposed development will provide a dedicated breakout space offering teaching support for pupils on an occasional basis. The scheme will achieve the need to provide an additional teaching support space and will provide improved facilities that will be accessible to 4-11-year-olds.”

The county council will decide on the plans later this year.

Classroom pod extension plan for Derbyshire village primary school