Member Article

North East Company donates £80,000 classroom

An Alnwick-based modular building company, Clearspace Buildings, has donated an £80,000 classroom to a school in Wales, making the dreams of 28 disabled children come true.

The state-of-the-art classroom was donated as part of a national ‘Win a School Building’ competition that Clearspace Buildings, based in Cawledge Business Park, ran in conjunction with leading education magazine Times Educational Supplement (TES) last year.

Nearly 400 schools entered the competition last year, including 14 schools from the North East, including Collingwood School and Media Arts College in Morpeth and James Calvert Spence College in Amble.

The 50m² fully accessible building, has changed the lives of the children with PMLD, severe learning difficulties (SLD) and autism, at Myrddin Primary School in Carmarthenshire.

The new classroom boasts more than £40,000 of specialist learning equipment making it one of the best equipped learning units for children with special needs in the county.

The new classroom has been in use since April for one-to-one learning with five children. Already the school has noticed huge improvements in two of the children who are using it. One of the students currently uses only sign language to communicate but is making big strides in her speech now that there is a dedicated, quiet room, without distractions, where her learning can be enhanced.

Clare Horner, Operational Director of Clearspace buildings commented: “It was a real privilege to go back to Myrddin and see the classroom in use, but more so to see, first hand, the difference it has made to the lives of the students who are using it. Knowing how much this classroom was needed by the school makes it all the more poignant. It’s a real success story for everyone concerned.”

The competition was open to all primary and secondary schools in the UK. To enter, schools simply had to explain, in no more than 300 words, why they deserved to win the building. A panel of five judges, including Olympian Rob Hayles, Lord Knight, MD online learning at TES and visiting professor at London Knowledge Lab, Gail Larkin; National Association of Head Teachers vice president, TES editor Ann Mroz and managing director of Clearspace Construction Scott Horner, shorlisted five schools for the prize and a public vote decided the winner.

The competition was open to all primary and secondary schools in the UK. To enter, schools simply had to explain, in no more than 300 words, why they deserved to win the building.

The timber frame, cedar clad classroom is situated at the entrance of the main school site and has ramped access outside ensuring it is fully accessible inside and out. As well as the main classroom area, inside the building there is a single office / observation room which has one-way glass to enable students to be observed without parents or assessors being visible. There is also a large fully accessible DDA compliant WC and changing area.

For more details about how a Clearspace classroom can enhance students’ learning and the environment at your school, visit www.clearspacebuildings.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Danielle Munn .