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Northmoor Academy (Grange) 3FE Primary School

Oldham, Lancashire

Sector: Education

Offsite Awards Finalist 2017: Best Use of Volumetric Modular Technology & Education Project of the Year

Front Entrance of Grange Primary School

Background
Following successful design of another Primary School [Hollinwood] for Oldham BC we were asked to design this Primary School from scratch, applying the same rates and design ethos. The Council needed to provide additional primary pupil places for September 2016, but to procure a new School utilising traditional tendering methods would have meant delivery some 6 to 10 months after it was needed.

Ethos
The School is designed to a modified EFA template using PSB Design guidance for the Classroom and Admin block and provides 630 primary places, with three form entry, and a 28 place Nursery utilising offsite construction methods to deliver the School in time for Sept 2016.

Design
As the Academy to run this school had not been selected when design commenced. We produced a number of sketchup Concept options to show how the new school could be accomodated on the 12m sloping site, together with the Sports facilities that would be required for a new primary school. See concept design for the images

Face to face meetings took place between Oldhams Facilies Manager and Project Manager to discuss the layout of the school and facilities provided before the final Option was agreed. We then moved on to Scheme design and signed off the layout plan and Scheme elevations for the school, Detail design was progressed to allow a Planning application was submitted,

Separate meetings were held with Oldhams Highways Officer to agree the peripheries of the School

Meetings with Building Control tool place via several phone calls to agree the Means of Escape and access routes before modular construction commenced.

We then progressed immediately onto Stage 4 design and setting out to allow Foundations and groundworks to commence on site whilst the Fixtures and Finishes design was completed.

To save on costs the exisitng Grange Secondary School when demolished was crushed and compacted and moved to form an extension to the upper plateau to provide playground space to the rear of the school, and to level out and form a middle sports plateau. We had to reconfigure the external levels to the rear including working out ramps three times because there was more fill left over to be utilised than originally envisaged by the contractor. ~The middle plateau was raised and extended to consume this.

We came up with a design incorporating sleeper seating to the rear of the school to allow the rear to step down to the middle sports plateau, which provided seating to watch sports and outdoor theatre for pupils and visitors.

A complex arrangedment of ramped footpaths was carefully planned to get Staff and pupils from the upper level down to the middle plateau and to the lower MUGA sports facilities, ramps were achieved successfully to all but one bottom corner of the site into which steps were incorporated from the Staff parking area.

During construction, regular video calls took place with the Contracts Project Manager on site and the Groundworks Manager to discuss the external works progress and satisfactory 95% ramped access to all areas and detail of the complex Exttenal works and Sports facilities.

The Contracts Projects Manager advised that they took the view that if they constructed to drawings on this project they would not go wrong; we were advised that the internal fit out of the school ran smoothly as a result of this.

Facilities
The contract involved the demolition of the existing Grange Secondary School that already occupied the site, of 1960's construction. The site falls some 12m from East to West. The School occupies the top plateau with a new Car Park, new Sports, Social and Play Playing facilities occupying a central plateu and two Sports MUGA's and parking facilities for Staff occupying a bottom plateau.

A 3 storey Teaching block runs North South with main fenestration facing West across the Sports and Play facilities.

A 2 storey Admin block with Admin, Reception, Entrance, Studio and Kitchen at ground floor and 3 further KS2 Classrooms at first floor faces South.

A 3 storey specialist Teaching block faces West and South, identified as a separate element by blue cladding. This houses the Nursery at ground floor, Learning Resource Centre, SEN spaces and Specialist Teaching Classrooms at first and second floor.

All teaching spaces are shaded with brieze soleil and the South facing Classrooms are also fitted with internal light shelves to cut solar glare. The South facing roof is fitted with two rows of solar panels to provide power for the School. teh target was 10% of the schools power need.

All floors are fitted with underfloor heating to provide low heat, providing a high level of comfort and reduced energy demand. The timber panelled walls are well insulated and good quality windows together provide a high performance building with low energy demand. All materials have been selected with excellent performance standard and green ratings.

External Works

The School has a KS1 playground running allong the 3 storey block facing West and beyond this a tiered seating area has been built into the site levels to form an ampitheatre facing West overlooking the grassed area and Sports facilities beyond, this allows Students and Visitors to watch sports events, activites and drama in an external environment from an ampitheatre style space.

The KS2 playground is tucked into the rear of the Teaching and Hall block facing North and provides outdoor activity and social spaces. Retaining walls were built into the levels to provide an access to the rear of the playground.

A new car park is formed to the front of the building to provide parkign for visitors, with drop off parking shared with the University oppoiste.

At the bottom end of the site an existingMUGA was improved and resurfaced to provide netball courts. and an Exisitng MUGA extended and fitted with a 3G playing surface to provide all year sports facility.

Footpaths were formed through the site to provide level access throughout the grounds. However, to be sustainable the exisitng concrete paneled building was crushed on site and used to form the base of the grass play surface to the west. There was so much crushed material to use that the leels were brought up and path gradients reconfigured, which meant that circa 7 steps had to be introduced on the last leg of the footpath to the lower levels , at a lower graident whcih provided access for the accessible but meant that wheelchair users needed to be taken around, with provision for funding for a short chair lift to be provided from future funds.

Construction Method

All of the above teaching facilities are constructed as offsite modules.

Two halls and service rooms have been constructed as traditional on site constructed spaces and are tucked in behind the Admin block.

Social Value
The school is located in the centre of Oldham and provided a much needed primary school for a growing number of pupils in Oldham, this reduced the need for pupils to have to be transported to other schools further away, and was sized to suit anticipated demand an dpopulation growth figures.

The Sleeper seating area to the rear was designed to allow both outdoor sports facilities and outdoor theatre events to take place at the school, with the facility being available for external use.

The school was delivered using Modular construction methods to reduce the construction impact on the Town Centre, the adjacnet University and Pupils, the Football stadium and adjacent residents to the west of the site.

3D Image of Front Entrance of Grange Primary School

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Status: Completed July 2016
Value: £7.3m
Type: New Build
Contract: Design and Build utilising offsite construction
Client: Oldham Borough Council
Architect: bpArchitecture
Project Manager: Oldham Borough Council
M&E Consultant: SI Sealy
Structural Engineer: Edge Structural Design
Contractor: Extraspace Solutions