Education construction firm starts work on £3m facility

A Lancashire construction company has started work on a £3m school project near Bristol.

Collinson Construction, based in Catterall, is acting as main contractor on a new sports facility for Backwell School.

The 1,770 sq m scheme will deliver a new state-of-the-art four-court sports hall, as well as a fitness suite and changing facilities, to create better sporting opportunities for the school’s secondary and sixth form students.

It will also provide much-needed additional teaching space with the inclusion of a new block of science classrooms and a staff office.

Funded through the Lighthouse Schools Partnership and a Priority School Building Programme grant, the facility was approved by North Somerset Council planners in June, with contractors now bringing the scheme to life on the former site of tennis courts.

It is just one of several projects Collinson Construction has started on site this year.

The education construction specialist commenced works on a new sports facility at Durrington High School in Worthing, West Sussex, while the firm also completed a £2.6m multi-use sports hall at Thorpe House School, in addition to a new £2.1m arts and music centre for Morecambe Bay Academy.

Rob Duxbury, managing director at Collinson Construction, said: “We’ve had an extremely busy year creating inspiring new sports spaces for education providers, but we’ve seen a sharp rise in demand for additional teaching space in response to the current pandemic, too.

“We’re proud to be working closely with Backwell School to deliver this innovative new facility that will not only help shape the sporting skills of students, but also benefit the wider community by encouraging them to take part in more physical exercise.”

Mr Jon Nunes, headteacher at Backwell School, said: “We are very excited to see the construction beginning on our new building.

“It is currently a very challenging time for schools and to see the structure come together and the building take shape is providing us all with a positive focus for the future of our school.

“A project of such scale on a large busy school site like ours can be logistically challenging, however, Collinson Construction has managed this incredibly well.

“Our new building will provide state-of-the-art facilities for our students and the local community. We will have a new fully-sized sports hall and a new teaching block with five classrooms, including three science laboratories. We look forward with great anticipation to using our new curriculum spaces in 2021.”

The new sports facility is expected to be completed by May 2021.