Off-site construction specialist, Yorkon, has craned the final modules into position on site at Cambourne Village College as part of a major project with Kier Construction to build Cambridgeshire’s first new secondary school in 30 years. The scheme is the first application of the new Yorkon off-site building system.

The building system has reduced the number of steel-framed modules to just 60, providing a more sustainable solution and reducing the number of vehicle movements and work on site.

On 16th January 2013, a selection of MP’s, architects and head teacher’s gathered close to Parliament to participate in a Westminster Education Forum discussing ‘The future of school buildings - new designs, improving teaching space and utilising new technologies’. Catherine Dowling, went along to find out what the landscape of tomorrow’s school buildings sector looks like.

Successfully allowing the assembly hall at St Joseph’s Primary School in Dundee to be divided into two discrete areas, partitioning experts Style recently installed a technologically advanced fully automatic, horizontally sliding wall system.  A first for UK education establishments, the revolutionary DORMA Moveo Comfortdrive is operated using a simple LCD control panel, allowing panels to be moved along a ceiling track before locking into position without any manual input from staff. 

Sika Sarnafil has contributed to a series of school re-roofing projects on behalf of Northamptonshire County Council.

The multi-million-pound investment in remedial works included bringing the roofs in line with building regulations for a better thermal performance.

Generally working on buildings first constructed from the late 60s to late 70s and all suffering water ingress, Sika Sarnafil roofing contractors installed a total of almost 30,000 sqm of mainly G410-18EL membrane.

KI have come up with a clever and ingenious concept for its Postura+ range of stackable chairs. Clients receive the vertically stacked mini chairs in the standard colours in a box through the post. Product information and colour references are marked up on the exterior of the box. Instead of mundane colour square shaped swatches, KI clients receive mini polypropylene Postura+ chairs in a variety of colours from which they can select exact poly colours. 

Sandwell Council’s £20 million refurbishment of Wednesbury Learning Campus in the West Midlands includes a 7,000sq m Sika Sarnafil single ply roof, installed by RLW Roofing.

With the school remaining open throughout works, RLW had to overcome a number of logistical and safety considerations, sometimes working out of hours to minimise disruption and keep to deadline.

Kevin Jones, Director and General Manager of Portakabin Sales, shares with Education Today the advantages of modular construction for schools.

“Delivering new school buildings in the current economic climate is not easy. Key considerations include construction cost; speed of delivery to meet the demand for school places; potential interruptions to teaching, and the right design to stand the test of time. The solution? Modular construction is successfully challenging site-based building methods through innovation.

Bedford Academy recently moved into a new £22.5m school building and Education Today spoke with Julie Lombardo, Finance & Operations Director at the school, who oversaw the development of the build, to get her take on the project’s challenges and successes.

The building plans came about in response to the school’s expected future growth: “Part of our sponsors’ vision is that we are going to be increasing our current intake quite dramatically, from the 13 to 18 year age group to 11 to 18 years old in 2014. We need the larger facility to accommodate the extra two years,” said Lombardo.

The UK’s leading manufacturer of concrete construction products, Forticrete, has announced the launch of a new rainscreen cladding system, designed to give specifiers and architects design flexibility when it comes to creating inspirational façades, which replicate natural stone.

Durable Forticrete concrete rainscreen tiles are housed on the revolutionary Ibstock Elementix framing system which combines high strength and ease of installation with industry leading cost effectiveness.

New research has confirmed a link between classroom design and the academic performance of primary school children.

In a pilot study by the University of Salford and architects, Nightingale Associates, it was found that the classroom environment can affect a child’s academic progress over a year by as much as 25%.

The yearlong pilot study was carried out in seven Blackpool LEA primary schools. 34 classrooms with differing learning environments and age groups took part.

With budgets under scrutiny, value and quality are driving specification budgets across the education sector – in both new build and refurbishment projects.

In response, flooring manufacturer Flowcrete UK has developed a project management service for main contractors and clients, which draws on 30 years’ experience in the flooring industry and its extensive network of approved flooring contractors.

Young hearing-impaired students in Kent are benefitting from Armstrong Ceilings' acoustic systems

Acoustic ceilings from Armstrong are helping hearing-impaired children at a newly amalgamated school.

What is now Twydall Primary School in Gillingham, Kent, features 18 of Armstrong Ceilings' new, easily relocatable, modular Axiom circular canopies with highly light reflective Ultima OP (Open Plan) mineral tiles.

Yorkon, has delivered a two-storey modular classroom building in a completely enclosed courtyard at Ninestiles School in Birmingham. Principal contractor Thomas Vale Construction awarded the sub-contract package to Yorkon.

This project had to be delivered within a tight timescale in order to meet stringent funding requirements. The architects and project managers for the scheme were Ridge & Partners.

New recycling bins are putting a smile on everyone’s faces at the Cupcakes ‘n’ Dinosaurs Nursery in Monmouthshire. The private day care nursery has recently purchased two Smiley Face novelty recycling bins from Leafield Environmental to recycle card/paper and bottles, to encourage their young charges to recycle.

The Smiley Face recycling bins are a new addition to the recycling bin range at Leafield and although they were designed to specifically appeal to children, they have been very popular in a wide variety of business types.

Portakabin has added the Energy-Saver range to its modular building options, a range engineered to reduce energy usage by more than 60 per cent. 

The new Portakabin Solus and Titan Energy-Saver buildings, which were developed in collaboration with environmental consultants Energy Building Limited, have been independently assessed and have the capability to achieve an Energy Performance Certificate ‘A’ rating, putting them among the best-performing sustainable buildings available in the UK.

Pendock Column Casings have contributed to the striking interior of Dudley Evolve, the new vocational training centre of Dudley College which opened in September 2012.

Pendock preformed plywood column casings offered an imaginative and practical solution for enclosing the structural elements within the building. The main contractor, ISG, specified 30 Circular Column Casings in a natural finish which were installed around the perimeter of the atrium and on the main corridors on three floors.

ISG has been awarded a £5.1 million contract by Bournemouth University to refurbish a 500-bedroom student accommodation block in the town centre.

The 37-week programme involves a comprehensive refurbishment of Cranborne House, including all 500 study bedrooms, 75 kitchens, common areas, ground floor reception and exterior landscaping.

Pupils and staff at Rosewood Free School in Southampton are in their new school environment sooner than anticipated due to Kier and the Scape framework.

Scape is a local authority controlled company that helps the public sector deliver savings on projects across the UK. Last year Scape appointed Kier as the sole provider for its National Minor Works framework, which delivers budget-saving construction projects up to £2m.

The need to maintain precise control over carbon dioxide (CO2), temperature and energy consumption is essential to create quality learning environments within educational institutions and SE Controls’ new, compact NVLogiQ room controller provides an innovative solution to meet these demands.

NVLogiQ constantly monitors indoor air quality, temperature and humidity and uses innovative algorithms, developed in conjunction with Loughborough University’s Building Energy Research Group, to control the automatic operation of windows, vents and heating to improve learning and comfort while saving energy.

ISG has completed the £38.8 million Wood Lane Studios scheme. Developed by Voreda and Imperial College London, the building provides high quality and highly sustainable accommodation for students and key workers in the capital.

Wood Lane Studios was constructed on the site of the BBC’s former worldwide HQ site near White City. The BREEAM Excellent rated development comprises studio accommodation for 606 post-graduate students in four ten-storey blocks, which are linked at ground floor level, alongside three timber-framed, three-storey residential buildings providing key worker accommodation.

Hundreds of Middlesbrough College students will get a head start in the jobs race thanks to the removal of a blot on the landscape.

Esh Group has teamed up with Middlesbrough College to demolish a derelict property on the college site.

In its place will emerge the site for an innovative construction project which will help hundreds of Middlesbrough College Construction students gain the skills they need to compete in the jobs market.

Prospects College is a vocational skills training provider based in the South East of England with sites in Southend, Brentwood and Basildon.

Architects Ayshford Sansome has been working with Prospects on a new training facility, completed in Basildon.

Shortly after work started, changes to the way the funding was provided meant a one-year delay before continuing.