North East School Building Project
Builders are looking back on a job well done after they completed work on one of the first schools to fall under the Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme.
GB Building Solutions have finished work on Durham Johnston School in Crossgate Moor, Durham, which is the largest of its kind in the council and is at the forefront of environmentally friendly construction.
The £24m development saw the North East team of the national contractors GB Building Solutions build a mixture of two and three-storey buildings, comprising of an atrium connecting two wings of teaching blocks and a sports wing. The atrium block contains the teaching accommodation, the hall, dining areas, main entrance, administration and circulation spaces, while the teaching blocks contain classrooms with folding acoustic walls, which fold back to create open teaching spaces as well as areas for personal study.
The project is made all the more remarkable by the fact that the team at GB were able to keep disruption down to a minimum, with pupils at the old school building opposite able to improve on their results – with exams taking place in the new building just three days after being opened.
Martin Smout, chairman and chief executive of GB Building Solutions, said: “We knew it was a priority for the school and Durham County Council that the children could continue to learn with almost no disruption and I am really pleased to say that together we have achieved this.
“The council has invested substantially in this new school to provide the best future for the children of Durham so it was very important to us that we did not then exceed this budget and that we delivered a school that met the high expectations both in terms of its environmental standards and as a state-of-the-art educational facility.”
The next stages of the development will see GB demolish the old school building and construct a new car park and entrance to the school site. It will also build a new sports field on the site of the old car park.
Headteacher Carolyn Roberts said: “Our school has a long and proud history and this is our third state-of-the-art building since 1901. We are all absolutely delighted – the whole process has gone very smoothly and the finished result couldn’t be better.”
The build follows a number of lucrative contracts secured by GB, including the £2.2m redevelopment of a three-storey library in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, which involves preserving the 108-year-old stone-built Victorian Mechanics Institute building which houses it.
The firm, which has its head office in Surrey and employs 75 workers in the North East, is also involved in a £15.5m project to build three schools in Blyth and a £12m contract at Cramlington High School to construct four connecting buildings, and now believes it can grow its North East turnover by £20m to £100m over the next few years.
GB Building Solutions have finished work on Durham Johnston School in Crossgate Moor, Durham, which is the largest of its kind in the council and is at the forefront of environmentally friendly construction.
The £24m development saw the North East team of the national contractors GB Building Solutions build a mixture of two and three-storey buildings, comprising of an atrium connecting two wings of teaching blocks and a sports wing. The atrium block contains the teaching accommodation, the hall, dining areas, main entrance, administration and circulation spaces, while the teaching blocks contain classrooms with folding acoustic walls, which fold back to create open teaching spaces as well as areas for personal study.
The project is made all the more remarkable by the fact that the team at GB were able to keep disruption down to a minimum, with pupils at the old school building opposite able to improve on their results – with exams taking place in the new building just three days after being opened.
Martin Smout, chairman and chief executive of GB Building Solutions, said: “We knew it was a priority for the school and Durham County Council that the children could continue to learn with almost no disruption and I am really pleased to say that together we have achieved this.
“The council has invested substantially in this new school to provide the best future for the children of Durham so it was very important to us that we did not then exceed this budget and that we delivered a school that met the high expectations both in terms of its environmental standards and as a state-of-the-art educational facility.”
The next stages of the development will see GB demolish the old school building and construct a new car park and entrance to the school site. It will also build a new sports field on the site of the old car park.
Headteacher Carolyn Roberts said: “Our school has a long and proud history and this is our third state-of-the-art building since 1901. We are all absolutely delighted – the whole process has gone very smoothly and the finished result couldn’t be better.”
The build follows a number of lucrative contracts secured by GB, including the £2.2m redevelopment of a three-storey library in Haltwhistle, Northumberland, which involves preserving the 108-year-old stone-built Victorian Mechanics Institute building which houses it.
The firm, which has its head office in Surrey and employs 75 workers in the North East, is also involved in a £15.5m project to build three schools in Blyth and a £12m contract at Cramlington High School to construct four connecting buildings, and now believes it can grow its North East turnover by £20m to £100m over the next few years.