Morgan Sindall Construction celebrates progress at Horsforth School
Morgan Sindall Construction has reached a key landmark at Horsforth School in Leeds, where it is building a new two storey teaching block to accommodate 365 new students, helping to address the city’s demand for school places.
Horsforth School is a popular and oversubscribed school within the North West (Leeds) school planning area, and the expansion in its capacity reflects an urgent need for extra places in response to ongoing housebuilding in the LS18 postcode.
The steel frame for the new block has now been erected. The concrete for the first floor has also been poured, with work currently ongoing in completing the roof with the overall structural framing system set to be finalised in the coming weeks.
In order to celebrate the steel frame’s installation, students from Horsforth School were invited to take part in a steel signing ceremony and to take a look at how their new school building is progressing.
Brickwork on the new block is set to begin next month, with the project on track to complete by Spring 2022.
Social value plan for the Horsforth School project
As part of the project, Morgan Sindall Construction is delivering a social value plan that sees it liaise with local organisations to deliver targeted programmes that address the city’s key educational, employment and social requirements.
As part of this Morgan Sindall Construction is currently working with Leeds City Council, consultant partners and Leeds further education providers to raise aspirations and professional career attainment among local care leavers with work placements in management roles and career coaching.
Employment and training opportunities within the build programme have been created, as well as sessions with students at Horsforth School and other local educational institutions in order to demonstrate the many rewarding career paths within construction. A student from Leeds College of Building has been gaining valuable work experience for one day a week on the project.
The 365 new places created by the building includes 65 for sixth formers, taking the school's capacity to 1,765, and will enable the creation of a further 20 full-time jobs.
The new 1,658 sq m building will include classrooms, science labs, computer rooms and a library. It is being built on the existing tennis courts, with four new courts will be built to replace them.
The £5 million project will also incorporate a new school entrance on the south of the site together with the construction of new sports facilities and 20 new car parking spaces.
Opened in 1972, the school currently educates around 1,400 students aged between 11 and 18.
Nick Theos, Morgan Sindall Construction’s project manager for the scheme said: “It was a real pleasure to welcome students down to site – the steel frame going up is a key milestone in a construction project and it was only right we share it with the young people that will use this great new learning environment.
“Work on the build is progressing really well and we look forward to holding more sessions with the school as we approach completion next year.”
The project was procured through Pagabo’s Medium Works Framework.
- For more information about this news release please contact Tom Carlin at Influential on 07827 957740 or email [email protected].
