Fernwood Primary School

Sector: Education

Project value: £2,241,000

Social Value Generated: £12,600

SME Engagement: 100%

Waste Recycled: 97.1%

Local spend within 10 miles: £1.1m

Adult employment opportunities: 8

Local spend within 20 miles: 95%

Local labour within 20 miles: 76%

There were families in our catchment area who couldn’t come to the school and now we can welcome more children because of the new buildings and fantastic refurbishment."

Mandy Austin

Executive Headteacher | Fernwood Primary School

With an 18% increase in reception age children in Nottingham between 2010 and 2014, Nottingham City Council needed to commission a school expansion to meet the growing demand.

Delivered by G F Tomlinson through SCAPE, the project delivered a new build extension and a new all-purpose teaching building.

This led to the creation of six bright, spacious classrooms, associated teaching space, a dance/breakout space, a plant room and bathroom facilities.

The new buildings were designed to be as energy efficient as possible, to keep maintenance costs down for the Council. This was achieved through various means including; LED sensor lighting, increased zoning on heating systems, and thermal comfort controls and automatically opening vents linked to the building management system.

Fernwood School’s capacity has been increased by 24%, to 1,080. This means they can now offer one extra class in each year group, which gives 210 extra pupils within the catchment area the chance to go to their local school.

Through the Adopt-a-school initiative, G F Tomlinson offered work-based learning activities, interactive health and safety assemblies, construction activities and guided tours for pupils.

They also worked with six pupils from the school on a planting day to put finishing touches to a new interactive pebble garden and play area in the school grounds.

The school was still open and functioning during the project, so it was essential that there was no disruption to learning.

Careful planning was needed throughout the project, to understand all the requirements and develop a delivery plan that was appropriate for all stakeholders.

Regular communication with the school and adjacent contractor meant there was a thorough exchange of information so the project could be planned accordingly.

All stakeholders were consulted, throughout the entire process which meant key drivers and requirements were clearly understood and the transition to the new buildings was as smooth as possible. When the scope of work needed to be revised, the budget and programme were developed to fully incorporate the changes and the project was still completed on time and within budget.

9/10

Client satisfaction

£12,600

Social Value Generated

£1.1m

Local spend within 10 miles