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February 11, 2011
Timely start to £29m Academy project
From left, students Chris Nash, Rachel Kee, Sabrina Isles and Jonathan Hartley help with the spadework beneath the clock tower, watched by academy sponsor David Meller, Norman Elliott of Kier London, and principal Andrew Hemmings.
Students joined in a “timely” ground-breaking ceremony to celebrate the start of work by regional contractor Kier London on a new campus at the Bushey Academy this month.
The event, led by academy sponsor David Meller and principal Andrew Hemmings, was marked by cutting into the turf of the main quadrangle, which is overlooked by the former Masonic School’s 1920s-built clock tower.
This will be moved to a new location at the heart of the new academy as part of a £29m design and build project awarded to Kier London.
Surrounding it will be a range of new buildings providing the latest educational facilities for up to 1,350 students, including 300 post-16 students.
Due to be ready for autumn 2012, the new academy will feature a sweeping pedestrian plaza leading to a new reception area fronted by a glass façade allowing views through the building to the new landscaped quadrangle incorporating the relocated clock tower as the focus of an amphitheatre-style performance area.
A central three-storey “Market Place” atrium will showcase the academy’s twin specialisms of Business and Communication, as well as providing informal meeting, teaching and learning spaces, plus dining, internet café and cutting-edge ICT facilities. The new academy will also contain a wide range of teaching areas, from traditional classrooms to open-plan studios and workshops.
The original dining hall and main hall will be retained and these, together with a new theatre, sports hall, sports pitches and multi-use games area, will be available for use by the academy and local community.
The Bushey Academy principal, Andrew Hemmings, said: “A lot of people and organisations have put in a tremendous effort to secure the brightest of futures for our students. This ground-breaking represents the next leap forward and I would like to thank them all for their hard work and support.”
Norman Elliott, construction director of Kier London, said: “Extensive work has been put into planning this project, especially by the academy’s senior leadership team. We look forward to further developing this excellent team relationship through the construction phase of this exciting project, making the new Bushey Academy an exemplar of modern educational building design and construction.”
Under the first phase of redevelopment, Kier is installing a T-shaped complex of 90 cabins linked together and configured to form a temporary school containing classrooms, laboratories, drama studio and ICT suites. Students will move in after the Easter break, when Kier London will start demolishing the old school’s dormitory buildings.
Specially designed and built for the purpose, the temporary classrooms will provide students and teaching staff with the highest standards of comfort and functionality throughout the construction project. Kier is bringing to the academy its extensive knowledge and experience of working in “live” educational sites, including Whitmore High School in Harrow, a £42m design & build project completed on schedule last summer, where a similar temporary classroom solution was adopted during construction.
Andrew Hemmings commented: “I have seen the temporary accommodation used at Whitmore School and this standard of facilities is actually better suited for teaching purposes than what we have now.”