St Helen’s Catholic Primary

The initial design for this scheme was prepared by Southend Borough Council and involved the innovative approach of extending the school ‘up’ rather than ‘out’, to provide six new classrooms and ancillary meeting rooms over the existing ground floor classbases.

The contract was secured in open tender on a Design and Build basis with A.W. Hardy engaging the services of local architect S K Architects to develop the initial proposals.

As originally envisaged, the project fell into four phases which not only required the first-floor extension over the existing premises but also extensive internal refurbishment and re-modelling to suit. The initial requirement was to prepare the rooms below the extension area for the new precast concrete floor and supporting steel frame. This was completed alongside re-locating and extending the ground floor staff room in readiness for the expanded school premises.

The first-floor extension comprised a SIPS timber frame structure built off the concrete deck which was ultimately clad in through-colour render on a cement-based board and the roof was finished with a single-ply system. The original scheme had proposed that this was done in two phases, but A.W. Hardy were able to condense this work into a single phase enabling the school to have greater continuity of the existing classbases.

The final phase entailed refurbishment of the ground floor corridors and reinstatement of some classrooms whilst the new extension was opened-up and occupied by the school. The whole scheme was delivered in time and to budget whilst incorporating additional works for the school within the same pre-determined timescale. Close attention to the daily running of the school and liaison with administrative staff enabled the project to reach a safe and timely conclusion to this unusual and appealing building project.