Morgan Sindall on site with Chester schools

Morgan Sindall has started work on the £11.5m rebuild of Blacon High School and the £3.6m new JH Godwin Primary School, both in Blacon.

The two projects are among 12 schools to be delivered by Morgan Sindall under the Education Funding Agency’s Priority School Building Programme.

Blacon High School on Melbourne Road is currently housed in three separate buildings, which will be replaced by a single three-storey building. Phased demolition will allow the school to remain open and lessons to continue as normal whilst the new school is built.

JH Godwin Primary School is currently housed in a two-storey building with limited accessibility to the upper floor. The new build is taking place as a phased demolition, similar to Blacon High School, while lessons continue in the remaining section of the school for its 210 pupils.

The two projects form part of the North West Private Finance batch, which reached financial close in March 2015. The batch includes a total of 12 schools in Chester, Wigan, Manchester, Stockport, Merseyside, Halton and Blackpool. Across the programme, where possible, each new school will be built on land within the existing school boundary allowing the school to remain operational during construction of the new buildings. Once complete, the school will move into the new teaching facilities while the old buildings are demolished and external landscaping works are completed.

Morgan Sindall’s contract covers the design and build of the new school and the hard facilities management of the school for 25 years.

JH Godwin Primary is scheduled to be open in April 2016 and Blacon High School is scheduled to be completed in August 2016.

HLM Architects are the designers for both schools.