Bluecoat Academy Primary

Sector: Education

Budget: £4.7 million

Client satisfaction: 8/10

Local labour within 20 miles: 59%

Local spend within 20 miles: 66%

This building will deliver outstanding facilities for young people and will have all of the resources to enable them to realise their potential and access new and exciting opportunities."

Sue-Ellen Shaw

Headteacher | Bluecoat Academy

A school designed for the whole community

Nottingham City Council and the Bluecoat Academies Trust asked the team at SCAPE to design and build a new 420-place, two form-entry primary school, 26-place nursery including a specialist unit for children with autistic spectrum disorder.

This project was designed by Lungfish Architects and delivered by Wates.

Established to increase pupil places in Nottingham, the new school has been delivered in accordance with ESFA guidelines, with the design crafted to offer high quality learning experience for pupils.

Running right through the centre of the school is a wide learning street with breakout areas, a library and play spaces.

Officially opened by the Archbishop of York in June 2017, the school celebrated in the larger than usual hall, designed for a variety of community occasions.

The primary school was built to provide much needed pupil places within the Nottingham area.

Nottingham City Council estimate that 3,908 extra places will be needed by 2018 and this scheme at Bluecoat represents the the start of their response.

The school needed a larger than usual hall, part funded by the local diocese, to accommodate community activities without disrupting the school day.

Our delivery team accelerated the programme to minimise reliance on temporary accommodation in order to upgrade the school for pupils and staff as quickly as possible. A robust strategy was developed with collaborative planning to agree a system of working around the building. Early Contractor Involvement meetings optimised the programme, enabling the team to deliver on time.

Disturbance to the temporary primary school opposite the site was minimised. Our delivery team implemented a robust logistics plan, whereby segregations and access routes changed on a daily basis. Coordinated deliveries were agreed to ensure minimum disruption to school drop off/collection times and continual flow of maintenance vans using the Nottingham City Homes depot.

Client change requests were accommodated with ease by our delivery team. These were supported throughout the project as the school went through a change of leadership. Changes to the layout supported and reflected the changing vision and views on how education could be best delivered.

44/50

Considerate Constructors Score

8/10

Client satisfaction

66%

Local spend within 20 miles