West Berkshire Council / Children & Young People - St Mary's School, Kintbury
Children & Young People are a division of West Berkshire Council (WBC). They are responsible for ensuring that all school's within their jurisdiction are maintained to an acceptable standard, including meeting Government-set standards which dictate amongst other targets the facilities and classroom sizes required. Children & Young People hold the Council budget for the schools within the Council.
Project Description:
The project involves the extension and refurbishment of an existing school which will remain "live" throughout the project. Clear direction at the start from the budget holder identified that there would be no provision of temporary classrooms to facilitate the project, so clear and defined phasing plans have been adopted, using school holiday periods to decant in and out of classrooms.
The new extension is approximately 225m2. The remainder of the school, with the exception of the kitchen is being refurbished and totals approximately 800m2. The phasing will be over five defined periods, whereby the classrooms that are being refurbished are temporarily decanted into the existing hall.
The brief was to update the school, extending classrooms to achieve the government recommended classroom size of 60m2. There was also a requirement for new staff welfare facilities which forms the extension element of the project.
The existing access for disabled persons was inappropriate. To improve on this, an accessible lift will be installed to allow easier access to the 3 levels currently in occupation. We are currently anticipating completion on time and within budget.
Key Challenges:
- WBC funding required the contracts to be exchanged and signed by the end of the 2010-2011 financial year. The late appointment of the design team meant that this date was always going to be tight and an appointment had to be made, including contract signature, within two weeks of tender returns.
- The requirement from the Client that there were to be no temporary classrooms meant that considerable thought had to be put into how the phasing element would work. To ensure the school were happy with the proposals, alongside the CDM, a meeting was held with the successful contractor to clearly define what was acceptable and what was unacceptable.
Form of Contract: JCT Intermediate Contract With WBC Standard Amendments
