The new Sharrow School was born out of the amalgamation of Sharrow Infant and Nursery School and Sharrow Junior School following a review of schools in the Sharrow, Abbeydale and Heeley areas identified an oversupply of school paces for the number of children needing them. Restricted groundspace opened up the opportunity to create green roofs at three levels for play space, outdoor classrooms (44m2), and a sort of rooftop nature preserve (2000 m2).

The aim of the green roofs was to provide added value by assisting the control of stormwater, humidity, noise, heat and pollution. A by-product of this was to create a haven for local wildlife using a pond and recycled material. A weather station and webcam was installed for research by The Green Roof Centre to record wildlife on the roof. According to Nigel Dunnett, Director of The Green Roof Centre and the designer, the key design goal was “to create plantings with dramatic visual impact for much of the year, high biodiversity value, and minimal resource and maintenance requirements.”

Almost 700 plants were planted by volunteers from within the community; substrate depths range from between 100 mm and 500 mm. Green Roof Elements: A Wildflower biodiverse roof using seed mix from Pictorial Meadows. Plants used included directly sown annuals for high visual impact, i.e., cornflowers, Limestone grassland mix, Roof meadow mix, i.e., urban ?Brownfield? site species, including snap dragons and natural colonisation. The mixes contained no grasses due to their invasive nature.