Grand West is a place of wonder. Inspired by Wes Anderson’s travel and adventure film, Life Aquatic, the design weaves adventure and exploration through every room. There’s a Makers Room for experimenting and innovating, seven unique classrooms, a performance studio and a beautiful garden.

Each room has its own theme, colours, textures and feel, within the overarching sense of travel and discovery. Portholes in doors invite little faces to peek through and uncover adventure on the other side. Plants hang from the ceiling. Olive trees grow from the centres of tables. 

Every classroom represents a location around the world, turning the school into a place of wonder, where imaginations can run free. Even before pupils set foot inside, the fun begins, with oversized deck chairs and metal funnels in the front garden meaning pupils feel they are boarding a ship more than entering a school.

Inside, the entrance hall features a circular marble floor, with a circular light of equal proportions hanging above it. Thus the journey begins. As youngsters move up the stairs, black and white bubbled wallpaper represents the ship moving through underwater bubbles, before the pupils emerge at the top of the stairs. 

One of the most enjoyable elements of the design is the ceilings. We wanted to inspire young people to look up and dream. As they move from classroom to classroom, they experience rich, green rainforest foliage on one ceiling and bright rows of Mediterranean oranges on another. There are hot air balloons and huge scientific star charts. In the Makers Room, which is packed with everything from tools to instruments, tin ceiling panels gleam with possibility. 

Beneath the children’s feet, giant, brightly patterned rugs are set on the polished wooden floors. Even the bathrooms deliver their own sense of adventures, with brightly painted blue cubicle doors and the jolly roger flying. 

The feature lighting of the dance studio is complemented by that flooding in from the garden, which is home to a brightly painted rowing boat, ready to set off across the lawn and the sandpit for a voyage of discovery. Towering above it is a gorgeous blue, red and pink lighthouse, which the children can journey into to create stunning works of art that capture the excitement of their travels. 

For the grown ups, the office is the hub of the whole adventure. Individually illuminated globes seem to float on shelves that are littered with travellers trinkets. The travel trunk coffee table sits beneath a huge plantation ceiling fan, while the larger table has a vast map encased beneath the glass.  

This ‘theatre of learning’ doesn’t just look beautiful – it provides inspiration and excitement at every turn. In a world of screens and restrictions, it delivers a haven where little imaginations can dream big.