St Alban’s High School, Ipswich is an oversubscribed Catholic Academy judged outstanding by Ofsted in its last two inspections. In particular, the sixth form provision has been judged outstanding and results are some of the highest in the County. The school has an overall capacity of 980 places of which 180 places are in the sixth form. The school is regularly oversubscribed in all year groups. 335 applications were received in 2012 for 162 places into Y7. The sixth form opened in 1998 with a physical capacity of 160 places. At that point there were 176 students in the sixth form. Further building development allowed the sixth form to increase to 180 places. There are currently 1006 students on roll at the school with 201 in the sixth form. This has only been achieved by increasing sixth form class sizes to over 20. The proposal consists of a stand-alone block containing 6 general classrooms, a dedicated non-teaching space for IT and group working, together with all the necessary infrastructure for the operation of the block; office, toilets, 2 staircase, lift, storage and plant. The close proximity to the existing sixth form strengthens the presence of the sixth form and affords the opportunity to create an individual identity. The building has been designed to bridge the gap between high school and University, hard finishes and exposed structure and infrastructure create a more open and legible building under a tight set of constraints