Member Article

High demand SEN places delivered to Surrey

Morgan Sindall Construction’s Southern Home Counties business has completed work at Freemantles School in Surrey to boost the region’s special educational needs (SEN) provision.

On October 20, representatives gathered from Surrey County Council (SCC), Freemantles School, Morgan Sindall Construction all gathered to celebrate the successful delivery of the new state-of-the-art school.

On the day attendees were shown around Freemantles School, with words shared from Project Manager in the Morgan Sindall Construction Southern Home Counties business Nick Stoyles and headteacher at Freemantles School Justin Price.

Procured through the Southern Construction Framework (SCF), the project has seen the construction of a new two-storey SEN school building on the existing school’s site.

The new facility enables Freemantles School to have a separate Secondary and further education building. It allows the school to continue with their expansion to 270 places with two forms of entry for students aged 4-19 years old. Freemantles School significantly helps the council meet a growing demand for SEN student places in the county.

The new building links to the pre-existing school and has replaced three temporary classroom blocks which were previously being used by both secondary and further education pupils.

It includes specialist classrooms including a creative arts room, food technology kitchens as well as a sports hall.

As part of a later phase which is already underway, completed works will include creating a fenced multi use games arena (MUGA) and two small, enclosed playing fields.

Demand for SEN places is extremely high across Surrey, with 10,941 children from the region having an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) at the end of 2020 – a 49 per cent increase in just four years. EHCPs identify educational, health and social needs for children and young people aged 0 to 25 years who need more support than their school or other setting can provide.

Morgan Sindall Construction has a strong track record of delivering specialist state-of-the-art educational facilities alongside Surrey County Council. Recently, this partnership has seen the completion of the Westvale Park Primary Academy and Oakwood School, both of which are located in Horley.

Once again, Morgan Sindall worked with Streif to employ composite timber cassettes manufactured offsite, thus reducing the building’s carbon footprint and helping to secure the long-term sustainable future of the school.

Guy Hannell, Southern Home Counties area director at Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “Freemantles School has been a real team effort from the team at Morgan Sindall, Surrey County Council and the school itself. We have overcome inflation challenges, increases in building costs for a facility that has been in high demand by the local community. I am really proud of how the project team has come together with a determined attitude, to get this project over the line.

“Freemantles School is a brand new, high specification education facility that will enable the specialist support provided in Surrey long into the future.”

Justin Price, Executive Headteacher at Freemantles School, said: “The experience of working with Morgan Sindall has genuinely been a pleasure, we even looked forward to our weekly meetings with the team! Everyone who’s been involved in this project has done an amazing job and what we’ve got here now is fantastic. The creative arts space will be a highlight for the children, even creating a vocational space for FE students – turning the room into a cinema where they can sell tickets, serve drinks and control the projector.”

One Surrey County Council Project Manager also commented:“Working with both Morgan Sindall Construction and Freemantles School has been very rewarding, and Morgan Sindall are a very proactive and thoughtful contractor taking on board comments and suggestions from Surrey County Council and the school. I would not hesitate to work with them on future projects.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Robson .