King Henry VIII 3-19 School
Client
McCann & Partners Ltd
Project location
Abergavenny, Wales
Project date
2026
Photography
Antonia Stuart
Lighting learning beyond the classroom
How do you light a school designed to achieve Net Zero Carbon while supporting pupils from age three through to young adulthood across a campus shaped by wellbeing, flexibility and community use?
That was the challenge behind King Henry VIII 3-19 School in Abergavenny, a landmark new education project for Monmouthshire County Council and Monmouthshire’s first Net Zero Carbon school.
Developed as part of the Welsh Government's Sustainable Communities for Learning programme, the new 10.8-hectare campus brings together King Henry VIII School and Deri View School in a single all-through setting for more than 1,900 pupils. Designed around the principles of the Modern Welsh Curriculum, the school brings together primary, secondary, sixth-form and complex-needs provision within one connected campus, where classrooms, terraces, forest school areas, sports facilities and communal spaces work together to support education beyond the traditional school day.
Inspired by the surrounding landscape and biophilic design principles, the campus is arranged around a retained historic oak tree and a central "street" that links the different learning communities across the site. Large windows, outdoor terraces and dedicated forest school spaces strengthen the relationship between inside and out, while extensive community and sports facilities help position the school as a valued local resource from morning into evening.
Working alongside Monmouthshire County Council, McCann & Partners, Rio Architects, Morgan Sindall and Whitehead Building Services, Thorn and Zumtobel delivered a coordinated lighting scheme that supports the architecture, responds to a wide range of learning environments and contributes to the project's wider sustainability ambitions
A brief shaped by sustainability, flexibility and continuity
As part of the school's broader Net Zero Carbon strategy, the lighting needed to deliver excellent energy performance while also creating comfortable, practical and adaptable spaces for pupils, staff and visitors. The wider building-services brief called for low-energy LED lighting, daylight-responsive control, flexible zoning and systems capable of adapting as patterns of use change over the building's lifetime. From early years and specialist learning environments to classrooms, circulation routes, external pathways and sports facilities, each area had its own functional demands, but the overall solution still needed to feel cohesive across the campus.
Continuity was also an important part of the brief. Having successfully used Thorn products across previous education projects, Monmouthshire County Council selected a familiar palette of luminaires that would provide consistency across its estate while supporting straightforward specification, installation and long-term maintenance. That continuity also supported the council's whole-life approach to maintenance, helping simplify specification, replacement and long-term management across its estate.
The project also brought a significant logistical challenge. With the school delivered in phases, the lighting scheme had to align with a carefully managed construction programme. The main teaching block and external pathways were completed first, followed by the lower block, remaining external areas, car parks and sports facilities. Careful coordination and phased deliveries through Rexel helped ensure the right products reached site at the right time, maintaining momentum across both stages of the build.
Michael Roberts, Electrical Design Engineer, Monmouthshire County Council, comments:
"King Henry VIII 3-19 School represents a significant milestone for Monmouthshire. As our first Net Zero Carbon school, it was important that every element of the building contributed to our long-term sustainability ambitions while creating an inspiring environment for pupils, staff and the wider community. The lighting solution delivers the efficiency, flexibility and consistency we were looking for across a diverse range of learning spaces, sports facilities and external areas, while providing a platform that can continue to support the school for many years to come."
Lighting every stage of learning
Designing for a 3-19 school meant creating a lighting strategy capable of supporting a wide variety of spaces and age groups within a single, unified environment.
Across classrooms and teaching areas, Thorn Omega Pro 2, Cetus LED, Glacier and Novaline Style luminaires provide comfortable, efficient illumination designed to support concentration, visibility and day-to-day flexibility. In more robust or specialist environments, Aquaforce Pro and Clean Recessed Industry luminaires deliver dependable performance, while Voyager emergency lighting helps maintain safe and effective circulation throughout the building.
This multi-brand approach allowed the project team to select the most appropriate solution for each application while maintaining a consistent visual language across the wider campus.
Supporting learning beyond the classroom
At King Henry VIII 3-19 School, learning is not confined to enclosed teaching spaces, and the lighting scheme reflects that broader educational vision.
The campus includes extensive external learning and community spaces, from landscaped routes and gathering points to high-quality sports facilities designed for use throughout the day and into the evening. Within the indoor sports areas, Zumtobel CRAFT II luminaires provide high-quality illumination, while Thorn Champion LED floodlights support the 3G football pitch and county-level hockey pitch, helping ensure the facilities remain safe, accessible and welcoming after dark.
Across the wider site, Thorn Piazza, Civiteq, Avenue D2, Candle Bollard and Contrast luminaires create clear, welcoming routes between buildings and outdoor areas. The external lighting strategy was developed with consideration for the site's ecology and environmental zone, with the design required to minimise upward light, glare and overspill. This supports movement, safety and usability across the campus while reinforcing the school's ambition to connect education, wellbeing and community life in one cohesive environment.
A collaborative approach to educational design
The success of the project was built on close collaboration between Monmouthshire County Council, McCann & Partners, the wider design and construction team, Thorn and Zumtobel throughout both phases of delivery.
Working within a large and ambitious new-build education scheme, the team developed a lighting solution that responded not only to technical requirements, but also to the wider character of the campus, supporting everything from focused classroom learning and practical teaching spaces to sports use, circulation, community access and outdoor activity.
Lighting for learning, wellbeing and community
King Henry VIII 3-19 School demonstrates how thoughtful lighting can contribute to far more than visibility alone. By combining energy-efficient performance, responsive control, long-term flexibility and a coordinated multi-brand approach, Thorn and Zumtobel have helped create a lighting solution that supports learning, wellbeing and community use while reflecting the project's wider whole-life sustainability ambitions.
As Monmouthshire’s first Net Zero Carbon school, the development sets a new benchmark for sustainable learning environments, and the lighting scheme plays an important role in helping that vision come to life.