Building News
Wernick building a big hit at Devon college
W
ith their campus due for redevelopment in the near future it seemed unlikely that Queen Elizabeth’s Community College (QECC) in Crediton, Devon would receive the necessary funding for a new building on their split-site campus. But, the high performance specialist school with an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating for its sixth form provision is growing so fast that Devon County Council agreed that something had to be done, and quickly, to improve pupil accommodation on the campus. Central Government ‘basic need funding’ was sought and won for the school, but with the proviso that any new building would have to be re-locatable, because of the medium-term plan to completely re-build the campus.
NPS South West, the property design and construction company, was commissioned to provide just such a building and appointed Neath Abbey based Wernick Buildings to supply a two storey, eight classroom modular building that would re-house the Humanities Department. The 28 modular sections that comprise the building were delivered in four days and the building was handed over to the client 13 weeks later. A similar traditionally built structure would have taken a minimum of 40 weeks to complete. The greatly reduced on-site building time that modular construction affords is particularly important in a densely populated area, such as a school or college campus.
When the Humanities Department moved into their new building they were amazed at the quality of the modular accommodation. Designed to DCSF guidelines the classrooms are much larger at 60 and 62 square metres than other classrooms in the school. Delighted staff have reported that their students have reacted very positively to their new environment with the modern, spacious rooms having a calming effect on the pupils. Equipped with a wet central heating system, solid core insulated building envelope, and solar reflective film on all windows to minimize solar gain, the new building has achieved a very commendable ‘B’ rating in energy performance.
QECC has 1570 pupils who are drawn from a rural catchment area of 400 square miles. It is the only state boarding school in Devon, with 45 boarders. It is also a training school, key stage 3 pilot school, and a high performance specialist college in Humanities and Technology. Its sixth form has grown from 116 to 280 students in just 5 years.
Principal Richard Newton-Chance described the delivery and on-site completion work of the new building as, “Completely painless with no time- table changes required and all the groups involved in the project working very well together. The new Humanities block has been delivered in a fraction of the time and cost that traditional construction would have required and although potentially re-locatable provides a standard of pupil accommodation that is superior to anything else that we have at the college”.
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20
June 2010
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