Richmond school undergoes £4.2M transformation

A school in the London Borough of Richmond which was considered to be in poor condition has undergone a £4.2M transformation.

The Queen’s Church of England Primary School’s previous building was demolished as it was considered no longer fit for purpose with poor lighting and insulation plus escalating ongoing maintenance and repair costs.

It was  prioritised for a brand new school as part of the Government’s £4.4Bn Priority School Building Programme which was set up to rebuild or refurbish those schools in the very worst condition across the country.

There are two phases of the Priority School Building Programme, covering a total of 537 schools.

Under the first phase of the programme, PSBP1, the first school opened in April 2014, five months ahead of schedule. Over  160 schools have opened through the initiative and the majority of the 260 schools in the first phase of the programme will open new or refurbished buildings by the end of 2017, two years earlier than originally planned. Under the second phase of the programme, PSBP2, the Education Funding Agency plans to have all schools open in their new/refurbished buildings by the end of 2021.

The new building has been designed to cut heat loss through improved thermal properties throughout the construction of the building.

Water efficient installations will help to cut hot and cold water consumption, while natural lighting is to be exploited with the use of “daylight dimming” which reduces the need for artificial light.

Paul Rothera, Director at Pick Everard who provided design and construction consultancy services to the project, said: “The new school provides a solution where not only do the children and staff benefit from a greatly improved teaching and learning environment, considerable savings have also been made to reduce the ongoing costs of running the school.”

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