Construction milestone celebrated at new site for Harlowbury Primary School and Early Years and Childcare facility

A steel signing ceremony has been held at the new site for the Harlowbury Primary School and a new Early Years and Childcare facility, marking a key moment in the creation of these education facilities in Harlow.

Morgan Sindall Construction’s Essex business was appointed by Essex County Council to the net zero project through the Essex Construction Framework (ECF3). This development will see the creation of a two form-entry, 420-place primary school and a 56-place Early Years and Childcare facility.

The event saw local community leaders join representatives from Essex County Council, Morgan Sindall Construction, Net Academies Trust, and the Gilden Park Residents Association to celebrate the completion of the development’s steel frame.

During the ceremony the attendees, which included Harlow MP Chris Vince, Cllr Clive Souter; Morgan Sindall’s Essex Area Director Ryan Liversage, Net Academies Trust CEO Jo Coton, and Essex County Council’s team, which was led by Head of Infrastructure Delivery Elliot Smith, signed the school’s steel beams.

The new school on Gilden Way will replace the existing Harlowbury Primary School located in the Old Harlow area. Thanks to this development, the number of pupils will significantly increase from the previous capacity of 210 children while providing a higher standard educational environment.

Scheduled to open in autumn 2026, the £12.8m project will include Key Stage 1 classrooms on the ground floor and Key Stage 2 on the first floor. The new site will be designed around a ‘learning avenue’ to create a multi-functional area that maximises circulation spaces. It will also include specialist speaking language rooms, a separate play area for reception classes, a multi-use games area (MUGA), as well as hard and soft play spaces.

The site’s main school hall, kitchen, administration, and ‘community use’ side of the building will be separate to the teaching side so that these facilities can be used out of school hours.

The new stand-alone Early Years and Childcare facility will provide 56 places for children aged 0-4. It will consist of three playrooms for the different age groups, along with toilets and changing rooms, a kitchen, staff and receptions rooms, and other ancillary rooms. Each playroom will be provided with direct access to a dedicated external play space for each age group, allowing for easy supervision.

The school and Early Years and Childcare facility’s aesthetics have been designed to match the surrounding development and landscape.

Essex County Council initiated the project to ensure the area’s educational capacity met the local community’s growing demand for primary school and early years places.

The new Harlowbury Primary School has been designed to be net zero carbon in operation once open. To achieve this, the site will utilise photovoltaic (PV) panels and air-source heat pumps to generate renewable electricity and heating. In addition, the school will be entirely gas free, and the project will also be targeting a biodiversity net gain by planting new trees across the site.

The Morgan Sindall team employed its Intelligent Solutions approach to construction when designing the net zero features. This included utilising the digital carbon calculation tool CarboniCa to reduce emissions as much as possible.