Breathing life into old school buildings

Dilapidated school buildings across England are undergoing major renovations and repairs  as part of the government’s £2.4 billion programme to rebuild 261 of the schools in England in the worst condition – known as the Priority School Building Programme (PSBP).
    
One of the latest schools to be completed under the programme is Garston Manor School, a special educational needs school in Watford catering for up to 124 secondary aged boys and girls (11 to 16 year olds). The school handles all special educational needs including learning difficulties, autism or speech, and language related needs.
    
The renovated £5 million, single story, fit-for-purpose rebuild comprises new classrooms and a dining area and hall, as well as new internal and external spaces to aid learning and support the students’ individual needs.
    
The rebuild was completed in just 11 months, which was made possible by a successful partnership between the school, Hertfordshire County Council, the Education Funding Agency (EFA) and the contractor, Wates Construction.

INSPIRATIONAL FACILITIES
Schools Minister David Laws said: “The official opening of Garston Manor School is a fantastic achievement.
    
“Delivering great new schools will help to build a stronger economy and a fairer society, so that every young person in Watford can get on in life. Vital building work is taking place at schools in the worst state across the country.
    
“I hope the new school facilities will provide an inspirational learning environment that will encourage every student to reach their full potential.”
    
John Singh, the Chair of Governors at Garston Manor, said: “The community that Garston Manor serves have every reason to be delighted with their new school. The staff and pupils now have an excellent teaching and learning environment designed and built to meet the particular needs of the very special children that the school serves. There is little doubt that the spacious new building and the opportunities it offers will contribute significantly to the progress that they, the pupils, will make both educationally and socially.”
    
Phil Shortman, Business Unit Director, Wates Construction, Northern Home Counties and East, said: “The opening sees the culmination of our successful partnership with Garston Manor School, Watford Borough Council, Three Rivers District Council and the EFA – the results of which can clearly be seen in this impressive new building. Our site team led by Larry and Lyndon have found it immensely rewarding to be involved in a project that will improve and enhance the learning experiences of the students – I wish school staff and students every success in their new home.”

THE FIRST OPENING
Whitmore Park Primary School in Coventry opened on 1 May and was the first completed project under the programme. It had its dilapidated school building completely rebuilt, with procurement taking only 13 weeks and building works complete in just 11 months.
    
The £5 million Whitmore Park project comprises a new build primary school for 630 pupils with a 39-place nursery. The two wings share a central hub comprising the entrance, studio and hall, making it an efficient and effective design.
    
The two-storey school now includes two halls, which enables staff to run lunch time activities for one group of children while others are eating.
    
The new building has gone up alongside the old one which is due for demolition.

The former building dates back to the early 1950s and is one of several city primary schools built with metal originally destined for the aircraft industry.
    
Schools Minister David Laws said: “The opening of Whitmore Park marks a major milestone in the Priority School Building Programme, which is making great strides in ensuring that vital building work takes place at some of the schools in the worst state across the country.”
    
Caroline Kiely, executive headteacher at Whitmore Park Primary School, said: “I’m sure the new school environment will make a real difference to the staff and children here at Whitmore Park.

Our previous building was past its best so the new school will mean that less money will have to be spent on repairs and can be spent on better equipment or more staff instead.”
    
Pupil Bryn Williams, nine, said: “It’s a bit hard to find our way around. But it’s better than the old one. Everything kept breaking and there were leaks and buckets in the corridor.”
    
Stephen Beechey, managing director for education and investment at Wates, the contractor who built the school, said: “The Priority School Building Programme is proving itself an extremely successful means of ensuring new school facilities result in inspirational learning environments that encourage educational excellence.

This can clearly be seen in the delivery of Whitmore Park. Wates has maintained a close working partnership with the Education Funding Agency throughout the design and build programme to maintain cost and time efficiency, leading to completion of the first school under the programme.”

WORKS IN PROGRESS
Building work has started on a major £17m regeneration programme at two Hartlepool schools: Manor College of Technology and Barnard Grove Primary School.
    
Manor College of Technology, built in 1966, is to have £14m spent on it, while the work at 50-year-old Barnard Grove site is costing £2.8m.
    
Students at the 1,250-capacity Manor College will benefit from a new three-storey ‘super block’ with updated teaching facilities and a specialist block for 30 pupils with learning difficulties, as well as a major refurbishment of the sports hall and a new multi-use games area.
    
The new two-storey building at Barnard Grove will provide places for 315 pupils and a 26-place nursery.
    
Anne Malcolm, headteacher of Manor College, said: “This is such an exciting time for the Manor family and we are thrilled by the plans for our new school, they are amazing.

“The whole process has been carefully managed by the Education Funding Agency and with the support of the local authority, the project is going ahead with little impact upon the school community.

“Pupils, staff and governors are eagerly anticipating the brand new facilities.”
    
The work at Barnard Grove is due for completion in July 2015, with work at Manor continuing until September 2016. The schools are being renovated by Kier Construction.

SUBJECT TO PLANNING
The 100 year old Oasis Academy Henderson Avenue in Scunthorpe has been awarded £5.52 million from the Priority School Building Programme.
    
Plans have been submitted for a new school to be built near the existing building, which will be demolished after students and staff have moved out. Subject to planning, work is due to start in February next year.
    
The new primary school will accommodate 630 pupils, along with a 39-place nursery and children’s centre on the site. Once building work is complete, pupils are expected to move in during October half-term 2015.
    
Head teacher Cath Lloyd said: “This is particularly significant for our school.
    
“We were part of the Labour government’s programme before this, and had plans with the local authority for a super new build.
    
“Then the election came and the recession kicked in, and it didn’t happen. We were all really disappointed.
    
“We have a very old and leaky building. It is 100 years old and has a lot of history. We recognise that, but it has become a hard place to work in.
    
“It is not disability friendly or efficient when it comes to things like heating. There is always a big question whether our boilers will fire up for winter.
    
“We are desperate for this build.
    
“The layout also means that it takes a long time to get from one end of the school to the other, and the classrooms are much smaller than your average school.
   
“We are finding it a problem to fit people in, especially when there aren’t enough school places as it is.
    
“The great thing about the new build, subject to planning, will be the spacious classrooms. Teachers will have properly lit, ventilated rooms.
    
“It is fantastic and we are all thrilled.”

A ‘TIRED’ SCHOOL
Oakbank secondary school in Keighley has been awarded £16 million for a replacement school. The new state-of-the-art facilities will be constructed at the site of the existing school, in Oakworth Road.
    
The scheme has been approved through the Priority School Building Programme. But Oakbank needs to raise funds to further enhance its sports facilities, which it plans to do by selling for redevelopment an area of scrubland on the school site.
    
The new school will be based on a standard PSBP design, but with individual tweaks and variations to suit the specific site.
    
Teaching spaces wrap around a central hall, dining and drama zone.
    
Headteacher David Maxwell said: “It is really exciting that we are moving closer to getting a new school, which will be a wonderful addition to the local community and to Keighley.
    
“There has been a series of additions over the years to the existing building, and although it is in relatively good condition, it’s ‘tired’.”
    
Part of the current structure, which caters for 1,600 pupils, is Victorian, but the main section dates from the early 1960s.
    
“The new building will give us better facilities and more space with improved ITC and sports provision.”
    
The Priority School Building Programme is a government programme set up to address the condition of the schools most in need of urgent repair. It is split into capital funded projects and private finance projects. The programme was announced after the Labour’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme was ended by the Coalition government.
    
Some 715 projects were cancelled when the BSF programme stopped, and the PSBP includes just 69 of those owing to different eligibility criteria. This resulted in hundreds of schools loosing out on millions of pounds in capital investment.
    
While the BSF programme had been expected to cost £55bn and was a pledge to rebuild every secondary school in England, the Priority School Building Programme had, in its first stage, a £2bn budget for work to be done over five years.
    
When announcing the cancellation of the BSF programme, Education Secretary Michael Gove told the Commons that the scheme had been hit by “massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy.”

THE SECOND PHASE
A second phase of the programme, worth around £2 billion for spending between 2015 and 2021 was announced in May and the deadline for submitting expressions of interest was on 21 July.
    
Schools Minister David Laws explains how the second phase of spending will work: “The original Priority School Building Programme worked on the basis of the condition of the whole school site. We will now refine this to look at targeting individual school buildings, as well as whole school rebuilds where this is appropriate, so that the department can focus much more tightly on addressing specific issues in the estate. This is only possible thanks to the data coming out of our detailed condition survey.
    
“That survey will be complete by the summer and will give us a detailed pattern of need which will be a useful tool for targeting the available resources most effectively.”
        
STANDARDISED DESIGNS
The James Review was ordered by Michael Gove after the cancellation of the BSF programme to investigate ways to improve efficiency and reduce waste in central school building programmes. It was carried out by a panel led by Sebastian James, head of the Dixons group and was completed in April 2011. It set out 16 recommendations for a new approach to school buildings and stated that school buildings should be based on a set of standardised specifications and designs.
    
The review stated that a suite of drawings be developed showing layouts, dimensions of walls and spaces and indications of how different components and materials can be used. It also said that in the future more off-site construction could be used for elements such as specialist classrooms and plant rooms.
    
The review was part of the government’s drive to save 30 per cent from the cost of procuring the new school buildings.

RAISING STANDARDS
The PSBP is part of the government’s aim to deliver a more efficient, faster, less bureaucratic approach to building schools.
Following the James review to improve efficiency and reduce waste in central school building programmes, the government is building or improving the condition of almost 900 schools. This includes building almost 300 brand new schools, rebuilding and renovating 200 of the most dilapidated schools in the country, and approving funding for more than 400 projects from previous programmes.
    
Now the deadline has passed for expressions of interest in the second round of the PSBP, schools will hear by the end of the year whether they have been successful in attracting funding based on an assessment of those in greatest need.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
www.gov.uk