Surrey’s short stay school celebrates opening of new building

Morgan Sindall Construction has celebrated the completion of a new £5 million two-storey facility at the Fordway Centre short stay school in Stanwell, Surrey with an Opening Ceremony.

In the morning of the opening ceremony, pupils and parents attended the facility to enjoy pizza and ice creams as they toured the school. This was followed by an afternoon ceremony attended by representatives from Morgan Sindall, school staff, Surrey County Council councillors and dignitaries, and the Surrey Country Council project team.

Procured via the Southern Construction Framework (SCF) on behalf of Surrey County Council (SCC), Morgan Sindall’s Southern Home Counties business delivered the alternative provision centre in time for summer term. The expansion includes four new classrooms and a dedicated reception, allowing the Fordway Centre to accommodate 24 pupils.

Additionally, the new building includes group rooms, calm spaces, and an activity room as well as staff space and a holistic kitchen which doubles up as a community area for pupils to socialise and learn to prepare food. The team has also crafted an external playground and multi-use games area (MUGA) for students to enjoy.

As part of the Inclusive Education Trust, Fordway Centre caters for pupils aged 6-11 years who find it difficult to manage well in a mainstream setting. The centre aims to support and work with pupils’ individual needs and improve behaviours for learning with the intention of returning them to a mainstream setting, where appropriate.

In collaboration with architects Holmes Miller, the multi-use nature of the new rooms provides the school’s teaching and support staff with plenty of versatility, enabling them to tailor the spaces to best suit the pupil’s needs.

Sustainability has been a key aspect of the development. To support this critical aspect, the Morgan Sindall team implemented a range of sustainable innovations into the final design, including the incorporation of solar PV panels on the roof, air source heat pumps providing efficient heating and hot water by extracting heat from the outside air, and the use of a Streif closed panel structural timber building system which delivers high energy efficiency levels.

To further minimise the project’s environmental impact, Morgan Sindall successfully reduced the new building’s carbon footprint by 23.2 tonnes of CO2, calculated using their independently accredited CarboniCa tool.

Reducing the size of the concrete foundation and slab was central to these significant emissions savings. This was possible thanks to additional ground investigations, which identified better than anticipated soil properties. In addition, concrete produced using ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) in place of Ordinary Portland Cement was chosen, which significantly reduces the concrete’s carbon footprint.

As part of Morgan Sindall’s commitment to maximising the social value generated through its projects, the project team offered the local community opportunities to train and gain new skills throughout construction. The project team supported hosting six Building Services students from Brooklands College for a week-long placement each, and seven local apprentices were supported on the project totalling over 79 apprentice training weeks.

Guy Hannell, Morgan Sindall Construction’s Southern Home Counties Area Director, said:

It’s been an absolute pleasure to celebrate our delivery of the Fordway Centre with Surrey County Council, teachers, and pupils. This project is incredibly beneficial for Surrey’s community, supporting the next generation with specialised facilities that are tailored to the needs of SEN pupils and pupils with additional learning requirements.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed continuing our relationship with Surrey County Council throughout this project and aligning with their net zero carbon in operation goals to deliver Fordway’s new building. We look forward to seeing pupils and the centre’s staff enjoy the new educational environment that’s been created.”

Councillor Jonathan Hulley, Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning said:

It is fantastic to officially open The Fordway Centre. Morgan Sindall have done an exceptional job leading the construction work to create this brand-new facility. As a Council, we are committed to ensuring that our SEND and Alternative Provision Capital Programmes deliver fit-for-purpose specialist school provision across Surrey. We want our children to feel included, supported, and empowered to succeed, closer to home.”

ENDS