Contractor appointed on £18m school scheme
Morgan Sindall Construction has won an £18m contract to build a single-gender school for Birmingham City Council in Small Heath, which will provide 600 school places for both secondary and sixth form pupils.
Eden Girls Leadership Academy is the company’s fifth education contract won through the Constructing West Midlands (CWM) framework this year.
The new 48,000 sq ft campus is located on Hob Moor Road and will comprise 15 teaching classrooms in addition to three ICT classrooms, five science laboratories and one science preparatory room, spread over three storeys.
External features include a sports hall and external grass pitch, as well as providing library space with a learning resource centre. The Muslim-faith based school will also have a reflection hall for prayer, and an ablutions room.
Small Heath, where the school will be located, is one of Birmingham’s inner-city wards and has accrued high demand for student places in the past two years.
As an interim solution, Birmingham City Council commissioned a temporary school nearby, on the grounds of the former Clifton Road Primary School. Morgan Sindall Construction erected a two-storey modular building earlier this year which is currently accommodating 270 students, with a scope to increase this number to 360.
Work is set to start on the main Hob Moor Road scheme in November, and is expected to complete by spring 2021.
Dave Kelly, CWM framework manager at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “Delivering the number of school places the West Midlands requires to keep pace with population growth is an ongoing challenge for local authorities. Efficient procurement is key to success. Working through the CWM Framework over the past eight years, we’ve designed and built a range of schools, many on challenging sites, to help meet this demand.
“Our MySchool solution can be adapted quickly to individual briefs. It affords the speed and cost-effectiveness of a pre-designed model, but with scope to flex and add bespoke elements. It offers savings of up to a third in comparison to a standard build, but without the design constrains of completely flat-pack solutions that are put forward as the silver bullet for education projects.
“With more girls than ever getting involved in STEM we are particularly proud to help deliver the Eden Girls Leadership Academy’s impressive laboratories and technical facilities. Investing in education is an investment into our future, and this new build will be an inspirational learning environment fit for 21st century education.”
Ryan Turner, education account manager for Acivico said: “Acivico is proud to be delivering the first Islamic faith girls’ school for Birmingham City Council – Eden Girls Leadership Academy. The project has progressed very well and a start on site is now imminent.”
