Morgan Sindall hands over three SEN school expansions to Brent Council

Morgan Sindall’s Construction’s Northern Home Counties business has officially handed over three specialist education needs (SEN) projects for the London Borough of Brent Council, supporting the borough in meeting rising demand for specialist school places.

To celebrate this final milestone, St Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School was formally opened by Andy Prindiville, CEO of All Saints’ Trust, on 03 March, attended by representatives from Morgan Sindall, London Borough of Brent Council, staff, and pupils. At the event, Andy Prindiville cut the ribbon and attendees listened to a blessing service from Father Albert Ofere, enjoyed refreshments, and toured the school.

Appointed by London Borough of Brent Council via the SCAPE construction framework, Morgan Sindall successfully delivered expansions at Newman Catholic College, Preston Park Primary School, and St Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School, enhancing facilities and creating high-quality, inclusive learning environments for pupils with additional needs. Once complete, each school will benefit from an increased capacity for 16 SEN students.

Like many local authorities across the UK, Brent Council has seen a significant increase in demand for SEN provision and highlighted several schools where the offer can be expanded.

At Newman Catholic College, works included the construction of a new two-storey building comprising two classrooms, a sensory room, therapy room, and staff room, totalling £3.4 million. At Preston Park Primary School and St Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School, single-storey extensions were delivered, each providing two new classrooms, a sensory room, therapy room, and staff facilities. Preston Park Primary School works totalled £3.2 million while expanding St Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School totalled £3.4 million.

All three schools have also benefited from newly landscaped outdoor areas, including soft landscaping, dedicated planting zones, and covered external spaces designed to support outdoor learning and play.

As part of Morgan Sindall’s Intelligent Solutions approach, the tier one contractor used a Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) timber frame system for each project. The offsite-manufactured solution reduced reliance on traditional concrete, lowering embodied carbon while also speeding up programme delivery and minimising disruption to the live school environments.

Each new building features a carefully designed brick façade to complement the existing school architecture, ensuring the developments blend seamlessly into their surroundings.

In line with Morgan Sindall’s commitment to creating opportunities for individuals in the communities in which it works in, the team onboarded 15 direct local employees throughout works and the majority of the supply chain lived within 20 miles of the site.

And to support the next generation of construction professionals, 11 apprenticeships were welcomed on board the projects across 34 weeks as well as 20 hours of local school and college visits.

The tier one contractor also partnered with Tarem Services, a social enterprise cleaning company committed to tackling in-work poverty and food insecurity, to deliver essential food support to residents in Brent through Tarem Services' Mobile Foodbank initiative. The distribution took place at St Raphael’s Family Wellbeing Centre, where local families were provided with free food essentials with each bag including Easter eggs,

In addition, Morgan Sindall has gifted a sports shed, £1000 worth of sports equipment, and a storage container to support food bank efforts to the schools – helping students and staff kick off the spring term with energy, enthusiasm, and the resources they need to hit the ground running.

Sustainability has been another key priority throughout the project. Through decarbonisation, Morgan Sindall has saved 38.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent across the three schools, the equivalent of heating 14 UK homes for a year. To achieve this, the project team replaced the internal wall system from metal to timber across the three sites, removed the concrete paving slab at St Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School, and swapped concrete to plastic for the manhole and used a bigfoot system on the roof at Preston Park Primary School.

To calculate and analyse embodied carbon throughout design and construction, Morgan Sindall used the CarboniCa tool and undertook the 10 Tonne Carbon Challenge which encourages the team to work with consultants and the supply chain to find Intelligent Solutions that reduce carbon from the construction process by a minimum of 10 tonnes.