Stoneham Park Academy

Eastleigh, Hampshire

Project Details

Client

Hampshire County Council

Project Manager

Hampshire County Council

Architect

Hampshire County Council

Contractor

Morgan Sindall

Value

£6.63m

Contract Period

48 weeks

Procurement Type

2-stage

Form of Contract

JCT 2011 SCF/CDP

Size

1,752 m2

Apprentices

Project Summary

Stoneham Park Primary Academy is a brand new 315-place primary academy for children aged 4-11, sponsored by the University of Winchester. Opened in September 2020 and situated at the heart of the new North Stoneham Park housing development of 1,100 homes in Eastleigh, it offers high-quality, value-driven education. Designed to encourage community use, with a learning resource area at the heart of the plan.

Stoneham Park Academy is the pilot project for the Hampshire County Council model. Conceived as a lean, compact and energy efficient 2-storey form, the building is modest in scale and future-proofed for expansion. The model can be scaled ranging from 1.5 form entry to 3 form entry and due to its compact footprint can be adopted to suit a variety of sites and contexts as well as the client’s brief and budget.

The school has been built using the Streif modular system, which allowed the structural panels to be delivered to the site with external windows, doors and glazing pre-installed. The system ensured a shorter timescale of delivery and a smaller volume of deliveries to the construction site.

Set over two floors the academy’s facilities include 11 light and airy classrooms, plus nearby areas for one-to-one meetings for children to work together in small groups, a large main hall which is also used for dining and indoor PE, with an adjacent performance hall, kitchen, flexible library space which can also be used for events, a practical classroom, where children can learn design, technology and cooking, office space, medical room, MUGA, playing field with areas for formal and informal play and fully equipped with the latest ICT. Constructed using the latest sustainable technologies, the school includes solar panels to generate electricity.

Maintaining stunning views within its historic deer park setting, the school takes full advantage of the extensive grounds with a full forest school and an outdoor learning programme.

The new state-of-the-art academy provides a modern and welcoming environment providing outstanding facilities for children to learn and flourish.

“We are thrilled with our new school, it is a beautiful environment that we are sure our children will love. We are very grateful to Morgan Sindall Construction and Hampshire County Council for delivering a fabulous school in the most challenging of circumstances.”

Nicola WellsHeadteacher

“We’re delighted to hand over Stoneham Park Primary Academy. It’s been a pleasure working with Hampshire County Council to deliver such an exciting development which will provide vital additional school places for the Hampshire area. The expandable design will accommodate future increases in demand. We worked closely with all of the stakeholders to provide this high-quality learning environment which we’re confident the staff, pupils and parents will enjoy and thrive in.”

Clifford KinchArea Director, Morgan Sindall

“I would like to add my personal thanks to everyone involved for your determined effort to keep this project on track. I hear the scheme looks fantastic and that Morgan Sindall have delivered a building of high quality and finish. I look forward to visiting in the near future. Thank you once again and well done.”

Peter Colenutt MBEAssistant Director, Strategic Development and Capital Delivery, Children’s Services and Adults’ Health & Care, Hampshire County Council

“I wanted to thank you and the Morgan Sindall team for their role in delivering Stoneham Park Primary school. Given the unprecedented circumstances that all of us have been dealing with in the last few months it is to your teams credit that you were able to deliver, as promised, a complex project during the Covid 19 pandemic, with all its uncertainties and emerging social distancing requirements, and do so whilst maintaining excellent communication and good spirits. I have been personally impressed throughout the delivery of this project with the warm welcome you have given me, Nicola and the HCC architect team when every I visited the site. Of course that is to be expected but in this instance it has been noticeably generous. You and others on the team have shown excellent soft skills throughout which have backed up my sense that the school meant as much to you and the Morgan Sindall team as it did to us. I was particularly pleased to hear such positive comments from Nicola and that Morgan Sindall have provided additional items for the school. That’s a nice touch from the Morgan Sindall team and above and beyond expectations, thank you. We should collectively feel very proud of what has been achieved in delivering Stoneham Park Primary School. It’s a fantastic setting that has created a positive backdrop for children to enjoy for many years to come. It would be a pleasure to work with you and your team on future projects but in the meantime, I hope you manage to take some well-earned leave ahead of your next project.”

Mark SaundersCapital Development Officer, Hampshire County Council Childrens Services (Customer Sponsor)

“Can you pass on my heartfelt appreciation to the whole team for a job well done. To finish within only a few days of the original completion date is amazing and a testament to all involved.”

Steve ClowAssistant Director, Hampshire County Council

Key Challenges

COVID-19 Pandemic

In July 2020 and amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Stoneham Park Academy was handed over successfully on budget, on time, safely and to a very high standard following current government SOP guidelines.

Easy design coordination

Early appointment of our M&E sub-contractors enabled early design coordination and robust review of key details in collaboration with Hampshire County Council’s in-house design team. This ensured fabrication in the Streif factory commenced on programme. The preconstruction team visited the factory in Weinsheim, Germany to gather information on the production process. This included a review of on-site sample details and processes to ensure quality control measures were maintained. All panels arrived as fully sealed components with first fix wire ways including electrical conduits and cable ways for the wall panels as well as cut-outs for sockets and switches.

Volume of change

Volume of change within the contract meant that we had to be tenacious and dynamic involving our supply chain and sub-contractors whilst still maintaining programme.

Project Takeaways

Our Success

Completing the project on time whilst dealing with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Managing the early design coordination over a 6 week period with Strief, M&E supply chain and Hampshire in house designers to ensure the critical date for the fabrication of the Strief timber frame was met.
An early challenge was being ready with the groundworks and pour the ground-floor slab enabling delivery of the Streif frame; this was completed on time achieving critical path in the programme.
There are some very high-level finishes in the building and a high quality finish has been achieved.
Good coordination with external contractors also working on the project for Hampshire County Council.
Structural Timber Awards 2020 shortlisted finalist (Morgan Sindall Construction) in the Contractor of the Year category
Structural Timber Awards 2020 shortlisted finalist (Hampshire County Council) in the Education Project of the Year and Pioneer Award categories
Regional winner and shortlisted finalist for LABC People and Places Award 2021 in the Non-Residential Best Public or Community Building category

Our Learnings

Collectively, the FF&E packages were coordinated and subsequently procured later than contract programme however, this was overcome proactively between Morgan Sindall and HCC with the desired result achieved.

Value Added

The compact design is based on ‘fabric first’ principles combined with a mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR) system to improve thermal comfort indoor air quality (IAQ) and dramatically reduces energy consumption.
An options appraisal for the superstructure concluded that an offsite timber frame was the preferred solution for the project providing quality control and programme benefits.
The innovative Streif advanced timber panel system is a robust and highly sustainable framed construction based on low carbon/energy use. This provides numerous benefits including improved quality and running costs, significant savings on programme and preliminaries whilst minimising the risk of coordination errors when working internally.
On time manufacture and delivery allowed the building to rapidly achieve the key milestone of watertightness enabling access to all working areas for internal finishing trades in multiple areas in dry conditions at the same time.
Externally the cavity brickwork facades could safely proceed unhindered by other trades due to the factory-installed cavity insulation and membranes on the external face of the panels.
The whole manufacture is audited to ISO 9001 standards.
Off-site manufacture dramatically reduced the number of operatives on site thereby reducing construction phase health and safety risks and waste on site.

KPI’s & Statistics

Contract	Gateway 2 Planning	Gateway 4 Handover	Variation
Cost	£6,700,00	£6,635,072	-1%
Time	59.6 weeks	48.6 weeks	-11 weeks