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Email MPHMPH Building Systems designed and delivered two new modular buildings on the shared Birmingham campus of Wilson Stuart School and The Hive College, providing much-needed specialist accommodation for children, young people and young adults with Special Educational Needs (SEN). Both buildings comply with the Department for Education’s BB103 area guidelines and were designed with BB104 guidance in mind. Both put safe, dignified personal care at the heart of the classroom provision, with accessible bathrooms and a fully equipped assisted hygiene room with a ceiling-mounted hoist.
This case study shows how a 7-bay and a 6-bay modular building gave two neighbouring institutions their own clearly defined, level-access accommodation on a steeply sloping site, together with an accessible outdoor play and learning area. To see how we approach specialist education buildings more broadly, visit our modular SEND classrooms page.
Wilson Stuart School and The Hive College share a campus and together support children, young people, and young adults with Special Educational Needs (SEN) across Birmingham. Both needed new, purpose-built accommodation that could support a range of needs.
The brief went well beyond classroom space. Each building had to be fully accessible from the outset, with level access, and the larger building needed a dedicated support hub where pupils who need additional assistance can be cared for safely and with dignity. All of this had to be achieved on a site with challenging, deceptively steep topography, and the finished buildings needed to sit comfortably alongside the existing campus.
The larger building is a spacious double-classroom arrangement centred around a dedicated support hub. This central bay brings together an entrance lobby, an accessible WC and a fully equipped assisted hygiene room, so that personal care sits at the heart of the building rather than as an afterthought. The hygiene room includes:
Extensive built-in storage runs throughout the building, giving staff a proper home for personal care equipment and other essential resources.
For The Hive College, a SEN learning facility for 19- 25-year-olds, we manufactured and installed a new double-classroom building. A prefabricated layout with accessible toilet facilities for both staff and students. At the rear, accessed from Classroom 1. This SEN classroom unit includes:
Both buildings are finished in plastisol-coated steel cladding, carefully colour-matched to complement the existing campus architecture.
The external finish of the plastisol-coated steel cladding is deliberately colour-matched to tone with the existing campus architecture. The contemporary, low-maintenance façade gives the site a cohesive visual identity, improves wayfinding and blends seamlessly with the surrounding buildings.
Inside, Wilson Stuart School and The Hive College now have bright, flexible classrooms, accessible bathrooms and a purpose-built hygiene room, all with level access and a safe, well-organised site around them.
Achieving level access to both buildings was a key project requirement, and the site made it far from simple. Its steep topography is deceptively challenging, so MPH used careful building placement and extensive cut-and-fill earthworks to bring both entrances to a level, accessible threshold.
The result is two clear and distinct zones. Each building connects directly to the institution it serves, while movement between them stays easy for everyone.
The layout also prioritises safety: staff parking is separated from the main pedestrian routes that serve the buildings, helping pupils, students, and visitors move around the campus with confidence.
On the lowest part of the site, next to the larger 7-bay building, the project includes a generously sized permeable tarmac play and recreation area.
Fully accessible for wheelchair users and other students, this enclosed space offers a safe and welcoming setting for recreation, outdoor learning and informal breakout activities.
Department for Education guidance sets out the space and facilities schools should provide: BB103 for mainstream schools and BB104 for special schools and alternative provision. Both buildings are BB103 compliant, and BB104 guidance was kept in mind throughout the design, particularly for the accessible bathrooms and assisted hygiene room. Modular construction suits this kind of specification.
The classrooms, bathrooms and support spaces are planned in detail from the start, with the structure, services and fixings designed around the equipment pupils rely on, rather than retrofitted around it.
Schools and colleges across the UK trust MPH to deliver specialist accommodation that works for the people who use it. Our modular solutions offer:
Planning accessible accommodation for your school or college? Explore our modular classrooms or read about our work on a specialist SEND school extension in Lancashire, then contact MPH Building Systems to discuss your SEN project.
Send us a few details and we’ll tailor a solution around your goals.
