Morgan Sindall Construction's Essex business has delivered school buildings for Essex County Council using modular offsite solutions.

The three new school buildings are located at: Colne Community School & College in Brightlingsea, Colchester; Clacton County High School in Clacton-on-Sea; and Sweyne Park School in Rayleigh. The comprehensive upgrades were awarded to Morgan Sindall Construction by the council under the ECF2 Framework and amount to £9.5 million.

Prefabricated modular units, manufactured by Eco Modular Buildings, were used throughout each project to ensure that the work was delivered quickly, efficiently and to a high standard while minimising disruption to the live school sites. The modern methods of construction (MMC) approach that Morgan Sindall Construction implemented was a key part of these school buildings being able to achieve Net Zero Carbon in operation, which was a first for the county.

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At Clacton County High School in Clacton-on-Sea, a £3.5 million expansion project was completed on 15th December. This involved the construction of a brand-new standalone teaching block, creating 10 general teaching classrooms, a plant room, and a four-court sports hall. This development increased the school’s offering from 1,695 permanent places up to 1,800 for years seven-11.

This was the only project of the three that wasn’t entirely modular. A hybrid approach was employed instead in which modular class bases were combined with a traditional steel frame. This was required to achieve the necessary spans for the hall and illustrates how the two methods, traditional and modular, can be effectively used together.

A new £4 million teaching block was handed over at Colne Community School & College in Brightlingsea, Colchester on 14 December. The new development includes eight general teaching classrooms, two resistant material technology rooms, two food technology rooms, a seminar room and a plant room.

A £2m standalone teaching block was built at The Sweyne Park School in Rayleigh to provide an extra 150 places for children of high school age. Handed over on 1st September, the new teaching block includes six general teaching rooms, a WC, and staff rooms as well as special provisions and classroom enhancements to support suitable education for hearing impaired pupils. Morgan Sindall Construction also remodelled external areas to provide access to the adjacent 57-acre Sweyne Park.