B&E Boys are pleased to announce the completion of a £1.4 million project that began in June 2019 at Woodland Community Primary School in Heywood.
This project is typical of the many that B&E Boys have successfully completed over the years within the education sector.
Less than a decade ago, Woodland Community Primary School was struggling, having been judged to be ‘Inadequate’ in an Ofsted inspection. However, the main aim of the construction project – to increase the school capacity – is evidence in itself of just how far Woodland Community Primary School has come in a relatively short space of time. The primary school has improved steadily over time and was judged to be ‘Good’ in its most recent Ofsted inspection.
Like all schools, Woodland Community Primary School plays a vital role in the wider community and with the school obviously on the rise, demand for pupil places had increased to the point where the school buildings as they stood simply could not facilitate the number of pupils that wanted to join the school. The extension had really become the only possible way forward for Woodlands to meet the high demand for places. The plans for the extension formed an integral part of the school’s vision to continue serve the local community and meet the needs of families in the area.
On this 45-week project, B&E Boys worked alongside Rochdale MBC Capital Projects. The work centred on the construction of a brand-new two-storey extension to be placed to the rear of the existing main school building. The extension itself comprises of a total of & new classrooms, and a small room designed to be a shared group learning space.
The two-storey construction also contains other new facilities. These feature a toilet block (featuring 4 WCs), a circulation area, and a plant room. The new building is connected to the main school accommodation via a newly constructed link corridor. The extension is of steel construction with both brickwork and cladding. The project also involved the removal of the temporary buildings that Woodland Community Primary School have needed to use recently to house the rising number of pupils. Hard landscaping has been reinstated to the outside area.
Indeed, the outside area is an important aspect to Woodland Community Primary School. In keeping with the school’s name, it is proud to be designated as a ‘Forest School’. Naturally, as with all primary schools in the country, emphasis is placed on the importance of developing pupils’ skills in the core subjects of English, Mathematics, Science, and Computing. Alongside this expected focus, Woodland Community Primary School also recognises that it needs to deliver a curriculum that is both balanced and broad.
The best schools fully understand that providing an excellent education for all pupils is about much more than the delivery of academic subjects in a traditional classroom setting. To this end, forest schools set out to provide weekly opportunities for pupils across all years of the school to participate in learning that takes place in a natural outdoor setting. The primary focus of the Forest School Programme of activities at Woodland is to provide a range of hands-on activities that build confidence and raise the self-esteem of all children at the school.
The completed extension will enable Woodlands to continue a high standard of education for children in the local community for many years to come.
B&E Boys are proud of our record of completing projects in the education sector. If you have a project in mind that you would like to discuss, please get in touch on 01706 211368.