The 32-year battle to fix one school's windows

Telegraph

16-05-2025

'The heat in that school is terrible!' says 43-year-old design director Razvan Dumitrescu outside the gates of Templewood Primary School in Welwyn Garden City. His seven-year-old son, Nathan, is one of many children I see clutching a handheld electric fan as he heads towards his classroom. Teachers describe conditions in the room where he's expected to study today as 'often unbearable, unacceptable, sweltering' in summer. 'In winter,' says Dumitrescu, 'it gets so cold that children regularly receive lessons togged up in hats, gloves and coats.'
The reason? Single-pane glazing throughout the Hertfordshire county council's Grade II* listed 1950s building (the asterisk is important – it introduces an extra level of protection which means the owner must consult Historic England over any proposed changes).
Despite three decades of campaigning for double glazing from a long line of head teachers, Historic England has insisted that features of the original, award-winning architecture must be preserved. That includes the single-glazed doors and windows, which mean the school now has to spend £45,000 a year on heating a thermally inefficient building. The school gets no financial support for these exorbitant bills and as energy prices rise, head teacher Katherine Martindill has been forced to lose staff members to cover costs.
Last March, yet another planning application was nixed because of Historic England's inability to support the proposals (when approached by The Telegraph, Historic England said that while it did not formally object to the proposals, it did express concerns), which was finally overturned by Welwyn Hatfield borough council in September (although replacement windows still need to meet certain heritage requirements). 'But that planning permission expires in September 2027,' says Martindill. 'Work has to start in the next two years and five months or we're back to square one.' She's worried that Hertfordshire county council (which has to pay for any building work) is dragging its feet 'so slowly' that – forgive the pun – the window will close before the issues can be resolved.
A spokesman for Hertfordshire county council explained the delay by saying: 'Following Welwyn Hatfield borough council's decision to permit Templewood School's planning application for the replacement of windows at the school, we are working through a number of complex planning conditions that need to be discharged before the scheme can progress.
'Once the planning conditions have been discharged, we will be able to establish the actual cost of replacing the windows. A decision on funding would then need to be considered alongside funding bids from other schools, and would need to be approved by the Schools Forum.'
The absurdity of the situation becomes obvious as Martindill shows me around the school. In reception, I see the building's energy efficiency rating certificate scores a dire D (despite a new boiler and LED lighting throughout). The glass walls, doors and open-plan design were created to flood the single-storey space with light and offer serene views of the gorgeous spring greens of the school's ancient surrounding woodland. Research repeatedly shows that engagement with nature boosts academic performance and promotes good mental and physical health – but today, the blinds are pulled down to reduce temperatures, making the place dark and dingy.
In the gloomy reception classroom for four- to five-year-old pupils, teacher Beni Choudhry is already regretting the decision to wear a sundress made of synthetic fabric. She has altered the day's learning plan to ensure the most important lessons take place before lunch, 'because the children are able to stay calmer and cooler in the morning. After running around in the playground at lunchtime – which is important – they really struggle to cool down and concentrate. Don't we all? Nobody can think clearly when they're uncomfortable.'
Choudhry is bracing for an afternoon of 'sweaty fidgeting' and students rendered drowsy by the dark and heat. She's got a sign reminding the children to drink regularly ready to roll on her overhead projector.
'We've had to send pupils home on summer days in the past,' says Martindill. 'Parents were concerned about their children becoming overheated. We made it optional for working parents. But most parents took their children home. I don't blame them.'
Hillary Skoczylas, the school's chair of governors (who has two children at the school), is incredibly frustrated. She thinks the building's design 'was beautiful, very forward-thinking for its time – all done with the children in mind'. She suspects the original architect, AW Cleeve Barr, would have been all in favour of modernising the glazing.
During the Second World War, Barr was co-opted into RAF intelligence after Hitler invaded the USSR and gave up a lucrative banking career for architecture after becoming a Communist. He wanted the next generation to grow up in light, airy, practical spaces unlike the damp, dark and more ornate Victorian school houses of his own youth. Critics have noted that although Templewood's architectural style is technically 'Brutalist', Barr's work was that of a pioneering 'humanist'. 'C'est jolie!' pronounced Le Corbusier.
Historic England's 1993 listing of the school as Grade II* notes the use of a steel frame and metal-framed Crittall strip windows and doors (which even in the early 1990s were in need of maintenance). This led to the building being hailed as one of 16 'Structural Steel Classics 1906-1986' in a 'project organised by British Steel to commemorate 80 years of multi-storey construction'.
Today, the celebrated steel beams across the ceilings still look stunning. But the steel toilet cubicles have had to be coated with plastic because they had become so battered and smelly that some children were refusing to go into them. The windows and doors are battered and tatty. An average of five to six get broken each year, bumping up maintenance costs. Worse still, some of the original doors don't open – far from ideal in the event of a fire (the possibility of which is also increased by the heat). In 2014, emergency work on a flat roof required the replacement of a couple of fan-lights with heritage W20 double-glazed panels. 'So we've already got a few sensible windows on site,' says Skoczylas.
She says that another school just 20 minutes away, built as part of the same Hertfordshire county council programme, received a slightly lower Grade II listing, 'which meant they didn't need Historic England's approval for improvements. So they had double glazing fitted 10 years ago.'
As she understands it, the reason that Templewood School got the extra star on its listing was 'because of the two original murals, depicting scenes from Russian fairy tales by Pat Tew'. These are charming and would not be impacted by the installation of double glazing. They also require regular maintenance. Martindill points out the metal guard rails screwed into the floor to protect them from damage. 'This is a working school, not a museum,' she sighs.
When Martindill took over as head teacher in 2021, she says she 'could see that, financially, we were not in a good position. We had money in the bank but we had a regular in-year deficit. There was an overspend of £130k on staffing so I had to do a staffing restructure, which is never pleasant when you're new. But I've made many savings and having set a deficit budget this year of £70,000, we have managed to end with +£6k. I'm far from frivolous and I've got an email from the local authority telling me they're in awe of what I've achieved. But I really do need to stop wasting money on inefficient heating.'
Skoczylas feels that time and money have already been wasted by the council, which has insisted on researching and getting quotes for windows which don't meet the planning conditions. 'That took six months,' she eye-rolls. Martindill shows me some ridiculous sliding windows (fitted on the inside of the original steel) installed as a 'workaround' in her office. 'They don't work well,' she says. 'And they break up the vertical lines of the original design anyway.'
Apparently these interior fittings have a lifespan of only 10-15 years compared with the 30-plus years they could expect from double glazing. 'I'm not denying that double-glazing a building like this would be a big, one-time expense… We are looking at around £500,000,' she says. 'But it would lead to long-term savings.'
Martindill knows she is one of many head teachers fighting for limited funds. She's keen to stress she doesn't want to be difficult. 'Our school isn't going to fall down. I'm aware there are schools with whole areas they can't even use until building work is done.' She's also aware that she is unlikely to receive grants which are often intended for schools in more deprived areas – houses in the school's leafy AL8 postcode sell for an average of £655,000.
'But we have waited over 30 years for this to happen and I want to work with the council on this. I accept it may have to be done in phases. But we need to get started soon. I don't think I'm being unreasonable.'