Background and Issues

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Primary School is a faith-led primary school which forms part of the Diocese of Brentwood and is located in Walthamstow, East London. The Diocese have most recently judged the school performance to be “Outstanding”, and Ofsted largely support this view with their own grading of “Good”. The school has a well-established nursery setting which provides faith-led education, and feeds children into the main school. The nursery has been incredibly successful, thus creating high demand from the local area. Moreover, East London has experienced something of a baby boom in recent years, which has increased demand for nursery places.

St. Patrick’s sought to increase the size of their nursery in order to help address this need. With this in mind, Munday + Cramer were appointed to develop a range of proposals for expansion.

Solution – Nursery Expansion Project

Walthamstow is a vibrant urban area, which currently attracts high levels of investment and redevelopment. St. Patrick’s needed a solution that would enable them to significantly increase nursery places over the coming years. In order to achieve this, Munday + Cramer considered a range of options as part of an initial feasibility study. One such option was a two story new build, featuring a roof top play area in order to preserve outdoor space. This was, however, quickly discounted due to the high initial costs.

Ultimately, the school chose a single storey construction for their nursery expansion works. This option provided the best balance between initial costs, immediate usability and the ability to further expand in the future. The footings and steel frame were designed such that an upper storey could be added for minimal cost at a later date, in order to achieve the school’s future proofing aims.

Once the governors approved the design, the scheme and expansion plan was ratified by the Department for Education. This enabled Munday + Cramer to complete detailed designs and obtain planning and building regulation permissions as required.

Project Delivery

Munday + Cramer then completed a complete tender process with five contractors. MT Build provided the most competitive tender and therefore secured the contract. The works took place over a seven month period, which is tight for a project of this size. Munday + Cramer managed the build throughout, and together with MT Build, were able to complete the majority of works during term time with minimal disruption to teaching and learning. In order to meet delivery milestones and agreed completion date, however, it was necessary to carry out a portion of the works out of hours. This required careful scheduling and sensitivity to minimise the impact on the school’s extra curricular activities.

The end result was a bright and usable space which doubled the existing provision as well as providing the potential for further expansion as and when required. MT build and Munday + Cramer completed the project both on time and on budget, to the delight of the school.