Construction firm to lead multi-million pound school project

Morgan Sindall Construction has secured a £6.9 million contract to rapidly replace a fire-hit facility at Derby school with a modular building.

In October last year, part of Ravensdale Infant School, in Mickleover, was destroyed by fire.

Now, Morgan Sindall has been appointed by Derby City Council as the main contractor via SCAPE, one of the UK’s leading public sector procurement authorities.

Once complete, the three-form-entry school will provide teaching space for 270 pupils, as well as a 26-place nursery for children that lost their existing school in the fire.

Demolition works started in early 2021 and all the construction work is expected to be finished in only 45 weeks, in time for the students to move in after next year’s summer half term break.

The whole school will arrive onsite in 58 modules, which means it can be very quickly assembled.

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Prior to the work at the new school starting, Morgan Sindall helped provide replacement teaching areas by moving a temporary modular school from Rosecliffe Spencer Academy in Nottinghamshire, where it was no longer required.

Councillor Evonne Williams, cabinet member for children, young people and skills at the city council, said: “We welcome the appointment of Morgan Sindall Construction as the main contractor to build the new Ravensdale Infant School.

“It was deeply upsetting to see it destroyed by fire in October, but we have been incredibly grateful for the support from the community and other schools over the past nine months.

“Morgan Sindall has already helped get a number of our pupils back into the classroom by moving temporary units to the site and we’re looking forward to welcoming the rest back to a permanent building soon.”

Rob Cant, framework director at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “We’re delighted to have been able to help support the families, teachers and the local people that were affected by the loss of their local infant school last year.

“Sites like this play an important role in any area as they are vital not only for early years education but also as local community hubs – this made it imperative that we found some inventive solutions to get the school up and running as quickly as possible.

“Thanks to our existing work at other nearby schools and relationships with key stakeholders we were able to quickly move temporary teaching space to the site, helping to take some of the pressure off the local school network.

“The innovative and modular nature of the new building ensures that we can get the whole school up and running again in less than a year.”