Lytham St Annes High School, Whitworth Community High School and Littleborough Community Primary School and Nursery are the first schools to be built as part of the DfE’s 10-year Schools Rebuilding Programme.
The three Lancashire schools are part of a batch of six schools awarded to Wates Construction in January 2020 through the department’s modern methods of construction (MMC) Framework,
Wates is using its Adapt system, a component-based school-building kit with an emphasis on offsite manufacture. Wates says that its ‘fabric first’ approach would result in insulation and air tightness ‘significantly better than’ the standard building regulations.
Lytham St Annes High School is getting a new two-storey main school block and detached sports hall. With work due to be completed in 2023, all new build elements will be net zero carbon in operation, achieved through a combination of enhanced building fabric, passive ventilation chimneys, mechanical heat recovery systems and on site offsetting of energy use through an extensive biosolar roof system.
The new Littleborough Community Primary School will also be two storeys, with 14 classrooms, a library, a new sports/assembly hall, multi-use games area and a 420-place primary school plus 26-place nursery. The sustainable design includes an optimised thermal envelope with increased insulation and triple glazed windows, optimised window sizes to maximise daylighting together with rooflights and lightwells, enhanced ventilation with openable windows to classrooms and solar panels.
Whitworth Community High School will have a two and three-storey main teaching block with classrooms, main hall, specialist technology spaces. A minimum of 70% of the building’s pre-manufactured value will be constructed offsite. Features include roof-mounted photovoltaics, biosolar green roofs, heat recovery systems, sustainable drainage systems, offsite engineered thermal envelope and electric car charging points.
Wates education director Gary Campbell-Dykes said: “The construction industry has a huge role to play in helping meet the country’s ambitious climate goals, and this marks an important step in our journey towards achieving net-zero. Wates’ mission is to be a force for good, driven by our commitment to become the most sustainable, trusted and progressive business in the sector, and we have now delivered more than £500m worth of school construction through our ‘Adapt' solution, which offers a more sustainable method of construction, and delivers efficient buildings and services for our customers.”
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