St Mary’s Catholic Primary School

Background 

Anderson Acoustics was commissioned by Baxall Construction to provide acoustic design advice for a new single-storey building at St. Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Deal.  

The development includes general classrooms (reception, infant, and junior), practical rooms (food/science/DT room), a library, SEN resource space, office accommodation, and an assembly hall. 

Our Approach 

Acoustic Design Strategy 

We ensured that the acoustic design met the criteria set out in the DfE Output Specification Generic Design Brief, Building Bulletin 93 (BB93) 2015, and local planning requirements. Our strategy addressed several key acoustic issues: 

• Indoor Ambient Noise Levels (IANL): We set targets for environmental noise ingress and building services noise and advised on ventilation strategy, building envelope and mechanical services attenuation measures, ensuring adequate speech intelligibility. We also considered noise ingress from the MUGA and the sports fields. 
• Sound Insulation: We established internal airborne sound insulation targets to meet the acoustic standards throughout the building. Internal walls and facade are modular construction systems. Wall junctions were carefully detailed to avoid weaknesses in sound insulation performance due to flanking sound transmission.
• Reverberation Control: We recommended reverberation time criteria to meet BB93 performance standards, ensuring adequate speech intelligibility. 
• Noise Emissions: We set limits for noise emissions from new fixed plant systems to minimize impact on neighboring premises. 

We provided acoustic advice during the design at RIBA stages 3 and 4, developing the detailing for sound insulating elements and guiding the selection of acoustic treatments and finishes, including: 

• Acoustic treatment for reverberation control based  on mineral wool suspended rafts and suspended lay in grid ceilings. 
• Acoustic wall panels for the classrooms and the hall.
• Acoustic rafts for the corridor to ensure even distribution of absorption. 

Noise Impact Assessment 

We conducted a noise impact assessment to support the planning application for the proposed external plant and the three new sports areas.

Our assessment in line with Sports England Design Guidance showed that noise from the MUGA and sports pitches would be suitably controlled at the nearest residential premises. 

We also assessed noise from external plant in accordance with BS4142:2014, demonstrating that the ASHP acoustic enclosures and other plant noise mitigation measures would achieve suitable noise limits to discharge the noise related Planning Condition. 

Project Progress 

We completed a programme of pre-completion acoustic testing including sound insulation, indoor ambient noise levels, reverberation time and external plant noise emissions, and the results confirmed that our design and proposed plant mitigation measures meet the agreed target acoustic performance standards.