The school is being built to serve a new-build housing development, Highfields Estate
Once complete, Spencer Highfields Academy will provide 210 primary and 26 nursery places.
A single-storey, 15,510 sq ft main building will house seven classrooms, a reception, nursery and a double storey main hall.
Designed by Lungfish Architects, the new development is using offsite modular construction methods to get it done in just eight months. Subcontractor Eco Modular is supplying 45 prefabricated modules, which it has already stated making at its factory in Hull. The school is expected to be ready and open in September 2020.
Last year Morgan Sindall Construction and Lungfish worked together on the nearby Hackwood Primary Academy which opened in September 2019. Here too modular construction helped speed the project from planning to completion in less than a year.
Morgan Sindall Construction framework director Rob Cant said: “Modular building is proving incredibly popular in the education sector – and with good reason. Advances in technology mean that modern methods of construction can deliver high-quality 21st century learning environments within constrained time scales and with minimal disruption to day-to-day school life.
“Offsite construction results in reduced subcontractor traffic, and embodied carbon, while the expandable nature of the design facilitates easy expansion should population growth necessitate it in future.”
A ground-breaking ceremony was held this week to celebrate the beginning of onsite works. It was attended by representatives from the main contractor and Derbyshire County Council, alongside members of the Spencer Academy Trust and Lungfish Architects.
The project has been procured through the Scape Regional Construction framework (RCF).
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