Brand new fossil-free all through school opens its doors in Milton Keynes, thanks to Morgan Sindall
Morgan Sindall has officially completed work on Glebe Farm School, Milton Keynes’ first fossil-free new build school that opened its doors earlier in September, having been procured through our Major Works Framework.
The school is an all-through facility that is part of the Inspiring Future through Learning multi-academy, with 1,569 school places for pupils aged five to 16, alongside 39 full-time nursery places and 170 staff members. It will offer educational provisions to the residents of several hundred new homes that have been built on the nearby Glebe Farm.
The appointment was made via a two-stage process, with the pre-construction services agreement taking 9 months in total. The turnaround time from submitting price to entering into contract and commencing on site was less than 6 weeks, with the whole build programme completing in 80 weeks.
An industry-first sustainability milestone
Morgan Sindall spearheaded a hugely innovative approach to the education of the next generation using a gas-free design, which includes air source heat pumps, ultra-efficient LEDs and solar panels.
The construction process was also highly sustainable, with zero carbon site hoarding, onsite solar powered generators and more than 840 new trees planted on the school’s grounds, donated by the Woodland Trust.
Jonathan Parker, our head of construction, said: “We are very excited to have been a part of the creation of this excellent new facility for the local young people of Milton Keynes. Sustainable development is the future of building design and we are proud to have supported Morgan Sindall to achieve an industry-first in the Milton Keynes area.
“Providing clients with a compliant route to procure school expansion projects of this scale is a great source of pride for us. We aim to create a positive and long-lasting legacy of sustainable project work that will pave the way for the next generation and it is our hope that the school’s gas-free innovation inspires further green building work in the region and around the country.”
Grand proportions
The project was a vast operation, as the site covers a 95,000 square metre area in the parish of Wavendon – equating to an area larger than 13 football pitches. The main structure contains over 600 tonnes of structural steel to support all elements of the building.
James Wood, Project Manager at Morgan Sindall, said: “By offering Glebe Farm students support as they progress through full-time education from nursery to year 11, the school creates stability and certainty for local families. We are proud to have significantly increased the student capacity of Milton Keynes and are so pleased to see that the first pupils have been welcomed through the doors in recent weeks.
“This demonstrates that it is possible to rapidly produce a high-end educational environment that is not just at the cutting edge of sustainable design, but which has delivered tangible social benefits to the local community at every stage of its development.
“We have enjoyed a close and collaborative working relationship with the project’s stakeholders, including Milton Keynes City Council, Inspiring Futures through Learning and the Pagabo national framework for major construction works, and this has been key to creating such a transformational facility.”
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