Rugby Free Secondary School and Quest Academy, a special needs school, have just started on site under a £27m contract.
Rugby Free Secondary School is run by the Learning Today, Leading Tomorrow Trust, whose first free school, Rugby Free Primary School, opened in 2015. The secondary school opened in 2016 with pupils currently housed in temporary accommodation.
Quest Academy, alongside it, caters for 80 special needs pupils and is run by the MacIntyre Academies Trust.
Both schools are funded via the Education Skills Funding Authority’s national capital framework.
The new schools are being built on Rokeby Field after local residents failed in a bid to secure village green status for the field.
BAM’s work includes demolishing the current Rokeby Infants School and creating new playing fields for Rokeby Primary School in this space.
BAM Design is providing full architecture, structures and services.
While the design-and-build procurement model was criticised by Professor John Cole's 2017 inquiry into building defects at Edinburgh schools, BAM construction manager David Barr sees only benefits. "We bring our integrated business model to this scheme, where one company designs and builds the facilities. That is always a powerful advantage both to us and the client for innovation, rapid responses and problem solving," he said. "The one-company approach strengthens communication and cohesion.”
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