YORK-BASED off-site construction specialist the Portakabin Group has completed a £5.3 million school building and started on a pioneering £44 million campus scheme.
The single-school contract with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Council involved construction using a Yorkon off-site solution, and was the second phase of a primary school facility built by the group in 2013.
The project in Portakabin's sixth in the borough, which has one of the fastest-growing school-age populations in the UK. It has been predicted that about 8,000 new primary and secondary school places will need to be provided in the borough over the next five years.
The latest scheme has expanded the existing facility. Both buildings are now occupied by a free school and accommodate more than 500 primary, secondary and special-needs children. It will then be converted into a five-form entry primary school.
Roger Leighton, chief executive of Partnership Learning, said: “We have been really impressed with the performance of the Portakabin Group on this project and the advancements in off-site technology. The quality of the finished buildings is great and the speed of construction delivered the project on time despite a tight timescale, to help us meet the urgent demand for places in Barking and Dagenham.
“The project represents good value and we believe it has delivered more teaching accommodation for our budget, which includes larger than average classroom sizes. Staff and pupils are really happy with their new facilities.”
The group’s seventh project for the borough is now under construction – a pioneering £44 million three-school campus which is the largest ever off-site contract in the education sector.
The Yorkon building solution was sufficiently flexible to allow both phases of the project to be used initially for secondary education provision, before being easily reconfigured to meet the needs of a primary school with five forms of entry.
Facilities in the new two-storey building include 16 classrooms, a library and ICT suite, two specialist teaching rooms, dining room, new school entrance and reception lobby, and a PE store room.
The Press reported last month that the Portakabin Group had won an £8.2 million contract to rebuild two schools in Woking and Epsom
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