Although the last decade saw the largest wave of school
building since Victorian times, it is generally recognised that
there remains much work to be done in order to develop a secondary
schools estate that meets the needs of young people.
The government’s emphasis has shifted attention away from
educational transformation and is now focused on ensuring capital
investment is deployed to best effect - providing places in those
schools and areas where demand is highest.
To this end, there are a number of different school building and
renewal programmes which are already in existence or due to be
launched later this year. Under the aegis of the newly formed
Education Funding Agency (EFA) these include the Basic Need
Funding, Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP), legacy BSF
programme, National Academies Framework, free schools, and the
smaller-scale programmes for University Technical Colleges (UTCSs)
and studio schools. The recurring theme which runs across all these
investment programmes is a drive towards streamlining procurement
and reducing costs; which could be achieved through the
introduction of aspects of standardisation and simpler consultation
processes.
Capita Symonds has designed a host of award winning and
internationally acclaimed secondary schools and academies. We
ensure that our designs are flexible enough to meet the needs of
both today’s users and those of future generations while also
providing teachers, students and community groups with
inspirational learning environments.
We have also developed a ‘Future Schools’ proposition to provide
new and refurbished school accommodation in a time and cost
effective manner. This ‘kit of parts’ approach means we are able to
tailor a standardised model to the needs of individual schools.
Adapt School Solutions, developed in partnership
with Wates, is a prime example of this approach. Created in
response to the James Review, it offers four innovative school
designs that can be implemented at any suitable site in the UK.
These designs can be constructed in half the time of a traditional
build, reducing costs substantially – for a typical primary school
build costs are reduced from £4.5m to just £2.38m, while 40-60% of
capital savings can be made over a school’s life time.
Designed to achieve at least a BREEAM ‘Very Good’ rating, Adapt
also provides schools with a flexible building layout that can
easily be adapted to meet future needs.