City planners are expected to give the green light to the proposed state-of-the-art design for the independent Hamilton School in Queen's Road, which will include a 'breathing wall' to encourage natural ventilation and cut down on recycled air.
The Swiss chalet-style building will use a solar chimney to light internal rooms without electricity, and heat and light detectors to switch off lights and heaters in empty rooms.
Kathlyn Taylor, who runs the school with husband Terry and son Mark, said, 'It will be an exceptionally healthy environment in which to educate our children. Where younger children work and play you find the highest potential for cross-infection and illness. We have been keen to address this for some time.'
However, senior epidemiological consultants cautioned against thinking the school and nursery would become a 'germ-free' environment. One commented, 'Of course, like bishops who are against sin, we are against the spread of infections. But you cannot eliminate them altogether.'
Dr Noel Gill, a consultant epidemiologist at the Public Health Laboratory, said, 'It is good to have a nursery with the highest specifications for reducing the risk of infection. Any efforts to reduce the spread of things like gastro-intestinal infections are a good thing. But a nursery cannot be completely free of infection, any more than a hospital can.'
Child psychologist Jennie Lindon said, 'A school or nursery with plenty of light, preferably natural light, and open airy rooms giving a sense of space and comfort are to be welcomed. Children should also be able to look out through windows, so they need to be sited low enough and not high up walls.'
Mrs Taylor said the plans, drawn up by local architects William Cowie Partnership, were designed with three aims in mind: sustainability, efficiency and innovation. The extension will be flexible enough to allow changes in the future.
She said executing the project would 'be an object lesson for the children in how we can save energy, avoid waste and cut down the capacity for germs to breed.'
The Hamilton School, founded 27 years ago, incorporating a school and nursery, has more than 300 children enrolled, 80 staff and a training arm, the Children's House, which has trained childcarers from all over the Grampian region.
