Morgan Sindall Construction continues its legacy of delivering first-class educational facilities across the Northern Home Counties after being awarded two major upgrade contracts, totalling £13.5 million.
The redevelopment of Queensmead School in the north London borough of Hillingdon and Haileybury Turnford School in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, are the latest in six schemes awarded to the Northern Home Counties business by the Department for Education, under the Priority Schools Building Project.
Works at Queensmead School, a co-educational secondary school with academy status, include the construction of a brand new two-storey technology block and plant room, adding 18 classrooms and associated facilities, and the demolition of the current locally listed technology building which has reached a state of disrepair.
The team adopted a Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) approach to delivering the plant room (which sits separately to the new school building), and was prefabricated by Morgan Sindall Construction off-site and then fitted within two days on site. This significantly reduced project time and the disruption to classes, as numerous service switch overs were involved. It was also tested in the factory reducing the likelihood of commissioning issues when on site, amongst other quality and safety benefits felt by manufacturing off-site.
In Cheshunt, the Haileybury Turnford School project will see the construction of a new large school building, housing 12 classrooms, three state-of-the-art science laboratories, a science prep room, and sixth form seminar room. The energy efficient building will also allow for office space for the staff, as well as a large library accessible to all school users.
Again Morgan Sindall Construction adopted an off-site approach, and used structural insulated panels (SIPs), a high performance building system made up of insulated panels that can be fabricated off-site for efficiency and improved quality, to reduce overall construction time by seven weeks compared to traditional methods.
The use of SIPs also saw a 15% reduction in waste, and required less operatives on site, helping maintain a safe environment for staff during the global pandemic.
During the project, technology students from the school will have the opportunity to work with the site team to learn more about the build industry, providing an enhancement to the school’s STEM offering.
David Rowsell, area director for Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “We are delighted to be given these two key projects for the Department for Education’s Priority Schools Building Project, supporting the next generation by delivering inspiring teaching spaces for school users across the region.
“We have again shown our commitment to innovating and adopting modern methods of construction to deliver high-quality projects while driving cost and time efficiencies and enhancing sustainability performance across developments. We continue to look at alternative construction methods and we’re delighted to be harnessing this approach to deliver the best possible solutions for our clients and communities.
“We are looking forward to further developing our close working relationship with the Department for Education as the schemes progress, whilst continuing to enrich the communities that sit at the heart of where we work.”
Both teams at Queensmead School and Haileybury Turnford School have started on site, with the projects looking to complete in the latter quarter of 2021.