Morgan Sindall Construction has completed work on a new £18million secondary school in Small Heath, Birmingham, five weeks ahead of schedule for Birmingham City Council.

Eden Girls' Leadership Academy in Birmingham was procured through Constructing West Midlands - a fully OJEU compliant framework which has a 16-year track record in the delivery of publicly funded projects and is managed by multi-disciplinary construction consultancy, Acivico.

Morgan Sindall Construction has been an approved contractor partner for Constructing West Midlands for the last eight years during which time it has delivered 32 education schemes for the framework worth a combined total of £173m.

Small Heath is one of Birmingham's inner-city wards and the council commissioned the scheme due to the high demand for student places in the past two years. The new build has delivered 600 additional school-places for the region.

The new academy is being operated by Star Academies, a mixed Multi-Academy Trust that runs a diverse network of primary and secondary schools including Eden Boys’ Leadership Academy, Birmingham East, Eden Boys’ School, Birmingham, Small Heath Leadership Academy, Starbank School, The Olive School, Birmingham and The Olive School, Small Heath.

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Working in close collaboration with the Trust, Morgan Sindall Construction tailored the school’s design for Star Academies’ strict standards and branding requirements to meet specifications on everything from floor finishing to paint colour. Acivico project managed the scheme on behalf of Birmingham City Council and provided cost management, clerk of works and CDM services for the project.

Located on Hob Moor Road, the new school's 48,000 square foot campus includes a three-storey main building which houses five specialist laboratories, three IT classrooms as well as 15 general teaching rooms.

External features include a sports hall as well as a sports and grass pitch, and a new Learning Resource Centre which will provide library space. A turning circle has been built to improve access into the school. There is also a new car park with 40 spaces including three accessible spaces, one minibus parking space, seven drop-off/pick-up spaces and four electric vehicle charging spaces.

Pupils and staff will also have access to a reflection hall for prayer, and an ablutions room. As part of the Morgan Sindall Construction legacy, the project team worked with the school to create artwork for the reflection hall.

Designs for the school demonstrate significant eco-friendly investment with all classrooms fitted with low energy LED lights. Natural Ventilation and Heat Recycling (NVHR) units have also been installed. These are designed to produce an enhanced natural ventilation strategy and remove the need for energy-intensive air handling units.

Morgan Sindall Construction used Local Multiplier 3 (LM3), a social value methodology used by companies, government, or community organisations, to measure the impact of their spending and ensure that it generated local economic impact and benefit to the community. 70% of the project supply chain was procured within a 30-mile radius of the project.

As an interim solution during construction, Birmingham City Council commissioned temporary accommodation at the grounds of the former Clifton Road Primary School.

Morgan Sindall Construction worked to decommission the two-storey modular building while schools were closed during lockdown, with the students fully moving-in following the Easter break.