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Barking Abbey School - Case study

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Client:
London Borough of Barking &
Dagenham
Architect:
Rivington Street Studios
Completion date:
September 2019
Value:
£19.2m
Form of contract:
PPC 2000

Key Points:

Design & Build

Education

Live school sites

Complex logistics

The Brief

Barking Abbey School is a heavily oversubscribed 9FE mixed secondary school with 1,950 students including a large sixth form of over 600. It is ranked in the top 20% of all schools in the UK for progress at Key Stage 4 and rated as ‘Good with Outstanding features’ by Ofsted.

Neilcott and selected design partners were appointed to deliver complex expansion plans following an early stage design and build competition. Together we developed efficient, innovative solutions to meet the school’s outline brief to expand the school by 3FE through construction of 3 new buildings across 3 school sites located just under 1km apart.

Our appointment at RIBA stage 1 maximised client benefits of the two-stage process and early contractor involvement by creating a collaborative ‘one-team’ approach where all parties worked towards shared project objectives.

“Both myself and the school are really grateful for all your commitment, patience and excellent understanding of the school’s requirements which is reflected in the beautiful new buildings we have.”
Dawn Hughes
Senior Project Sponsor LBBD

The Scope

This complex expansion project involves construction across all of the school’s 3 sites to create state-of-the-art new facilities across a range of specialist subject areas. Key elements include: 

  • Building 1 Longbridge Road Campus – A new 3200m2 teaching block containing: general teaching, science labs, art and design/ technology classrooms; dining hall and kitchen; staff room, offices, toilets and support accommodation
  • Building 2 South Park Drive – A new 1300m2 2-court Sports Building compliant to Sport England guidelines
  • Building 3 Sandringham Campus – 2450m2 of new specialist teaching accommodation and a Sixth Form Centre with open plan study area, ICT suite, reception, offices, kitchen/servery, 4 science labs, new classrooms
  • Additional works were instructed including refurbishment of an existing hall and new car parking

The Challenges

  • Live operational school – H&S interface

    • Minimising disruption to teaching and learning
    • Site arrangement and interface with existing buildings to ensure optimal operational performance in-line with school/end user requirements
    • Design and delivery of best whole-life value solutions
    • Programme constraints to meet key client deadlines

Video of Year 7 Site tour

The Solutions

  • Large school population on-site & busy urban location necessitated extensive early collaborative planning & engagement with the school to ensure that complex school operations and pupil movements were fully understood & incorporated into logistics planning & sequencing of works activities. H&S was paramount, with complete segregation of working areas and transport/materials management in-line with a client and Local Authority approved Construction Management Plan overseen by our dedicated Logistics Manager.
  • Optimising sites for cost & operational efficiency
    • Neilcott proposed an alternative location onsite for building 2, streamlining and benefiting the project by:
      • Improving safety by avoiding large groups of students having to cross a busy road
      • Removing complexity by avoiding requirement for 2 planning applications for this site as original location crossed boundary to LB Redbridge LPA
      • Saving costs through shorter services routes
    • Optimised location of Building 1 to improve overall use of site
    • New classroom block and sixth form centre connected to an existing building through circulation space to provide seamless link at ground/first floors.
    • Building 1 existing temporary kitchen/dining room building were retained throughout construction avoiding requirement for decant accommodation
  • Flexible, proactive delivery approach in-line with design, programme & quality requirements
    • Acceleration of design and procurement for Building 1 allowed the project to commence in-line with the client’s required dates to achieve an ambitious programme
    • We facilitated an accelerated design process for additional work instructed after PC to be designed/priced within 1 month
    • Applying experience and learning from many similar projects, we engaged early with stakeholders and end users to ensure that design and specifications would meet their requirements allowing changes to be incorporated e.g. highlighting the need for enhanced extraction within the large woodworking suite to improve use-ability.
    • A flexible approach to programming & sequencing enabled brickwork to be taken off the critical path, allowing on-time handover following an increased lead-time for specified bricks on Site 2.
  • Partnership working and straightforward effective communication enhanced all aspects of the project, from constructive design team meetings and workshops through to daily site meetings with the school during construction, allowing open communication informing of current/forthcoming activities. Regular formal project reporting and Principals Meetings allowed any concerns to be ‘nipped in the bud’ before they became an issue.

“Neilcott spend time to understand our goals and end user requirements to help the whole team achieve these shared project objectives. They have a non-confrontational approach and work constructively to find solutions and ways to add value. It always feels that we work together as a team and profit is not the main driver.”
Dawn Hughes
Senior Project Sponsor LBBD

The Social Value

Significant school engagement was undertaken including site tours, art competitions and a 6th form careers assembly, supported by the wider design team to explain the many varied roles n construction. This was supplemented by an ‘Employability’ workshop, where soft skills are enhanced through first impression pointers, interview techniques and CV-writing tips. In addition to apprenticeship commitments, Neilcott worked with Barking & Dagenham Job Shop to host summer work experience for 12 trainees across a variety of trades, including CV-writing support and letter of reference.

Neilcott funded a pop-up space used by CREATE London to host activities from art programmes, workshops and poetry groups through to henna classes, used as a weekly community cinema. This was designed and built by Conor Morris as part of his final year work masters of architecture course at Central Saint Martins. The project explored utilizing, unused space around the borough, demonstrating what could be placed in spaces seen as unwanted or unusable

“Neilcott were appointed to London Borough of Barking and Dagenham’s original framework in 2007 and have subsequently been appointed to all of its later iterations including the current East London Solutions Framework. During this time Neilcott have consistently retuned competitive bids for both single and two stage tenders, delivering several projects each year, most recently our three site expansion of the Barking Abbey School. In addition to successfully delivering a wide variety of schemes, Neilcott have been great supporters and contributors to the Borough’s ever evolving social value agenda.”
Darren Cutts
Assistant Construction Director LBBD