Academy Development Award

sponsored by Capital Solutions Group
This award recognises recently completed academy projects that have demonstrated sound project management and procurement skills in order to complete development on time and to budget.

2011 Winner: Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, Brighton

Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, in a highly disadvantaged area, managed to deliver a significantly improving performance and participation agenda while working from two buildings, onsite, in a transition year – but they all got to see the modern phoenix rising. Project managing contended with site investigation and clearance, demolition arrangements, accommodating ancient woodland, agreement on special removals, parking allocation, planning and legal checks, site sharing, neighbouring authority impacts, and much more. Relief and acclaim all-round then when Kier the builders, who began work in March 2010, finished the £25m project on time and to budget in September 2011. The build was successfully coordinated through Academy Trust, local Council and Partnerships for Schools – together with The Aldridge Foundation’s sponsorship. The holistic ethos, specialism, practical and experiential approach of the Academy, as an ‘open door’ asset for the community at large, is set to further impress Brightonians noticing a new educational wave underway.

Commended

Maltings Academy, Essex
The new three-storey Maltings Academy completed when they said it would in September 2011, officially opening in October. Parents and pupils all saw what they had been eagerly awaiting: a state-of-the-art teaching and learning facility reflecting, in part, their contributions. Costing £26.5m, a substantial team was engaged to extract best value with professionals from Carillion, the contractor, and design architects Mott MacDonald. Together with the Academy they seamlessly project-managed through 18 months careful planning with the first sod cut in January 2010. Maltings accommodated an archaeological dig investigating Witham’s Roman and medieval past; the Council’s keen involvement in the Academy’s designs; and especially the creative ideas and input from students, parents and members of the community.   The build process – part of the Partnerships for Schools implementing the Government’s Building Schools for the Future secondary school plan – required an eco-friendly,  hi-tech infrastructure and to adhere to minimising local disturbance throughout.

Hope Academy, Merseyside
Hope Academy consulted, informed and involved its students in the design and development of their £33m groundbreaking  new ‘school within a school’, which opened on time in September 2011 after a two-year build process. Liverpool Hope University, the City’s Catholic and Church of England sponsors, together managed the project through OPM Mouchel, Wilmott Dixon the contractor, Department for Children, Schools and Families, and with design responses from St Helens Council.  Similarly to other Academy projects, Hope Academy had a clear guiding timeline for managing these interests from September 2009 through to its opening: construction, appointments, logo design, entry admissions, exam registrations and Ofsted pre-opening inspection. The Academy successfully combined two existing schools – Newton Community High School and St Aelred’s Catholic Technology College – to create an architecturally inspiring build with high sustainability and conservation standards, including wind and solar power. So high, in fact, they are expecting a BREEAM rating soon.