WWA were appointed by Abingdon Preparatory School to analyse the suitability of existing teaching and support accommodation at the school and develop a strategy to resolve operational challenges of the site. The school is located within a Grade 2 listed building which has been extended and remodelled on an ad-hoc basis over many decades. Our study identified a lack of space to properly deliver key areas of the curriculum and a lack of coherence in the spatial arrangement of the school resulting from years of piecemeal development. This is often typical of schools and colleges where no long-term vision or ‘masterplan’ for future development has been conceived. The focus of our masterplan was not about increasing the capacity of the school in terms of pupil numbers, but rather to ensure the school has the buildings and facilities needed to deliver its vision and compete effectively in the marketplace. Having devised a strategy for rationalising the school’s facilities, it was then possible to develop a brief for the design of additional accommodation necessary to modernise and deliver the school’s long-term vision. Upon completion of the masterplan, WWA Studios were then engaged to deliver the proposed improvements at the school which included internal re-ordering of space and the creation of new built facilities. Given the sensitivities of the heritage asset and its semirural setting, our town planning and conservation team worked diligently to secure planning and listed building consent for significant alteration and extension works at the school.. The project includes the following new elements: construction of a new music department, CDT and IT facilities, and the provision of new classrooms to provide a permanent replacement for temporary classrooms currently in use at the school. The accommodation also enables reorganisation of existing facilities, creating a more efficient and practical organisation of the school’s layout with a large library at its heart, acting as a shared resource for pupils of all ages.