Wates maintains long partnership with Department for Education

On Monday the Wates Group has cemented its long association with the Department for Education (DfE), with the announcement of its appointment to 11 lots of the DfE’s new 2021 Construction Framework (CF21).

Under the four-year framework, Wates Construction will continue to deliver projects worth £12m and above in the North and South of England, and for the first time deliver Low Value Band (£500,000 to £6m) projects across the country, alongside Wates Smartspace.

Wates has been a key DfE supplier since 2011 and is their first contractor Strategic Supplier Relationship Management partner. Alongside the new framework Wates is currently delivering work via the DfE’s Modern Methods of Construction (MMC-1) framework, which was awarded in January 2020. These framework appointments put Wates at the heart of the Government’s strategy including opening new free schools, and their ambitious 10-year School Rebuilding Programme.

Today’s announcement builds on Wates’ heritage as one of the country’s most prolific builders of schools and educational facilities in the country, which dates back over 60 years.

School stats

£2bn of Wates delivered schools in the last 15 years
120,000+ pupil places created/supported
244 schools completed, including 75 (£900m) via DfE frameworks
£400m+ of school projects currently in preconstruction or on site
£15.2m social value generated in 2020, including £7.6m of Social Enterprise spend
2,700 Apprenticeship weeks since 2017

Since Wates built its first school in 1961, it has been at the forefront of innovation in educational design, including its industry leading ‘Adapt’ solution, a component-based school kit which deploys offsite manufacture to provide a more efficient and sustainable method of construction. Now in its third iteration, Adapt has been used successfully to build 64 schools, saving waste and ensuring a consistent, high-quality approach.

The Group has also pioneered the development of Net Zero Carbon in Operation (NZCiO) schools, with four Adapt-Zero (NZCiO) schools currently under construction in the North of England via the MMC-1 framework, demonstrating readiness for the CF21 framework NZCiO requirement.

Steve Beechey, Group Public Sector Director, said:

“We’re proud of our record as one of the country’s leading school builders and excited to be appointed across multiple CF21 lots enabling us to continue and expand upon our long-standing, and successful partnership with the DfE, one of our most important customers.

“Over the last ten years, our partnership has been built on the excellent relationships we’ve developed with the DfE, its technical advisers, and the schools themselves.

“Our ongoing commitment to delivering the best learning environments has seen us drive innovation in advanced standardisation, delivering the greatest social value and now the smallest environmental footprint – via the NZCiO environments, where our next generation of young people will learn.”

A charity that aims to empower disadvantaged communities in Africa with quality IT school resources, has received a donation of over 300 computer items from the UK’s leading specialist ironmongery supplier, IronmongeryDirect and its sister company, electrical supplier, ElectricalDirect.

 The two companies, part of the Mantuan Group, have donated over 300 items of IT equipment to the Turing Trust, a charity that reuses and refurbishes tablets, phones and computers to be deployed to schools in Africa. The equipment donated by the Essex based ironmongery and electrical suppliers included computers, laptops, monitor screens and cabling, enabling 1,944 students to gain vital access to digital resources and learn vital IT skills. What’s more, the donation offsets 30 tonnes of CO2 emissions, which is the equivalent of planting 75 trees, or offsetting the annual carbon footprints of three Britons.

 On the company’s donation, Dominick Sandford, Managing Director at IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect said: “As part of our ongoing commitment to charity and worthwhile causes, we are delighted to support the Turing Trust with this donation. By providing training opportunities and skills development both in Africa and the UK, its operation also reduces waste and supports a more sustainable and environmentally friendly society, and we are pleased that we can help make a difference.”

 James Turing, Founder & CEO of the Turing Trust said: “We are immensely grateful to all the team at IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect for their donation, which will empower almost two thousand students with technology enabled education in Africa. The embodied energy savings created from this donation is also enough to power seven UK homes for a year and this donation helps to demonstrate what can be achieved through a circular economy approach to reusing business IT equipment.”

The Turing Trust was set up in 2009 in honour of Alan Turing by his family and seeks to provide quality IT resources and training to schools in sub-Saharan Africa. From its Edinburgh workshop, the charity refurbishes and ships IT equipment and educational software to help bridge the digital divide.

 

 

To find out more about the Turing Trust, visit www.turingtrust.co.uk.

To find out more about IronmongeryDirect and ElectricalDirect, visit www.ironmongerydirect.co.uk and www.ElectricalDirect.co.uk.

A former Wirral school building which is lying empty and costing the council huge sums of money may be brought back into use.

Last night’s meeting of Wirral Council’s Children, Young People and Education Committee heard that the former Kingsway Academy building, on Birket Avenue in Leasowe, could be adopted by Clare Mount School, currently based just under three miles away on Fender Lane in Moreton.

There is a clear need to bring the building back into use, given that it has been empty since 2018 and is costing Wirral Council £867,500 per year.

This cost has been incurred due to a PFI (private finance initiative) which allowed for the significant refurbishment and building of nine schools across Wirral, including eight secondary schools and one primary school.

But the contract, which Wirral Council entered into in 2001, means the local authority must pay £867,500 per year to Wirral Schools Services Ltd for the upkeep of the former Kingsway Academy site until 2031 unless another use for it is found.

Kingsway Academy, previously Wallasey School, closed in 2018, just three years after it opened.

When the school closed it had just 129 pupils on its roll, but the school site has a capacity of 1,450 pupils, with a former City Learning Centre (CLC) building also within the boundary of the school grounds.

Clare Mount School has 249 pupils at the moment, and the school’s sixth form pupils are currently using Kingsway’s CLC facility.

David Armstrong, Wirral Council’s assistant chief executive, said Clare Mount School was built on a flood plain and that many aspects of it dated back to the 1950s.

Given this, he suggested that the council’s upcoming feasibility study for the future of the Kingsway site looked at moving Clare Mount to it from the Fender Lane site.

Cllr David Brennan, who represents Labour, suggested that the authority also looked at a role for more sixth form education at the site, given that the demand for spaces in Wirral’s 16-19 age group is set to grow in the next 10-20 years.

While insisting that Clare Mount School was the first option which will be looked at by the local authority, Simone White, Wirral Council’s director of children’s services, said the feasibility study will look at as many options as possible.

Liberal Democrat member Chris Carubia wanted to confirm what Wirral Council was able to use the site for within the confines of the contract.

Mr Armstrong said that it must be used for educational purposes, but that this could mean broader services such as library space rather than simply as a mainstream secondary school.

Given the fact that Clare Mount School does not have anywhere near the number of pupils the former Kingsway Academy site is capable of accommodating, Labour councillor Helen Collinson asked if there was a plan to increase the number of pupils at Clare Mount.

Ms White said more details on school places needed in Wirral will be provided by upcoming studies, but added that there is pressure on the number of special school places in the borough and that this site may provide the council with an opportunity to provide more places in this area if they were needed.

 

Source: Wirral Globe

 

 

Quality and compliance are key requirements in the construction industry. It is why temporary boiler companies must have a team of design experts on hand to ensure both of these requirements are never compromised for the benefit of public safety. Steve Warne from Ideal Heat Solutions gives insight into the importance of selecting a quality system, and explains what makes its temporary boilers standout from the crowd.

Quality matters

In our blog about what makes temporary boilers temporary, Ideal Heat Solutions paid attention to the need for temporary boilers to comply with regulations – regardless of whether they will be in situ for two months or over a year.

As Ideal Heat Solutions has an expert team of designers, we understand the significance of complying with industry standards. Regulations play a vital role in assuring public health and wellbeing, and at Ideal Heat we are proud to say our equipment complies with the right standards.

An example of one of the regulations that temporary boilers have to comply with is the Clean Air Act. This act was a milestone in environmental protection when it was first published in 1956. Until this day the Clean Air Act helps to reduce air pollution and enable public safety.

Ideal Heat Solutions’ boilers comply with the Clean Air Act; calculating the position of a temporary boiler so it is relative to the flue height and proximity to windows. We have identified this approach in order to keep people safe. Temporary boilers cannot be landed too close to a building as this is risky to the public. If a temporary boiler has to be brought nearer because of the site’s conditions, Ideal Heat can always put a flue up the building to protect people.

Furthermore, and through 24-hour IQ monitoring technology, all of Ideal Heat’s equipment has inbuilt safety features. Engineers receive notifications and signals which help us take the right action if need be. As the temporary boilers govern themselves, in a real emergency they can completely shut down to protect the public.

Performance is key

So how do Ideal Heat Solutions’ boilers operate compared to others on the market? What makes these temporary boilers standout?

Ideal Heat Solutions provides pressure jet boilers. This means that the speed in which flue gases are transported and directed creates a flue velocity which, figuratively speaking, throws the matter up in the air. If you ever adjust a mixture on a burner, you can see how far it goes. With a well-designed flue system, the flue gases can be sent 10-15m into the air. You tend to find you avoid low-level problem when you have high temperature, high pressure boilers like the ones Ideal Heat use.

To get the most efficiency out of a boiler, you need to cool the flue gases below 55 degrees. Once they’re below 55 degrees water is produced, because when you burn natural gas, you get water. However, with a high efficiency boiler, the flue gases must be kept at around 220 degrees. And in an ultra-high efficiency condensing boiler, they have to be cooled down so the water drops out. In this case, a lot of unwanted steam, water and condensation occurs, which can be problematic.

When you go for condensing or high efficiency boilers that are more low temperature and pressure, what happens is the flue gases are not buoyant. As they are heavy, plumes will appear, which is the steam that comes back out and filters down at lower level.

When dealing with that problem, what we tend to do is put a flue dilution in. If we ever need to discharge at low level, we utilise this dilution system.

If you rock up to a building which has a high temperature system and put a condensing boiler in, all it will do is act like a high efficiency boiler. So, it matters a lot that Ideal Heat’s temporary boilers are not condensing unless the system requires it.

There have been some instances where low temperature and pressure boilers have completely gone wrong and have fogged everything up like a smoke machine. It isn’t, however, an issue with the jet systems that we use, which throws flue gases to quite some distance upwards.

As well as recognising that quality is key, Ideal Heat Solutions is a big champion of the importance of compliance. It is why we have a professional team of design experts that have years of industry experience on what makes a great temporary boiler design. Having this degree of insight is vital in delivering a solution that keeps people’s health and wellbeing at the top of the agenda.

 

www.idealheatingsolutions.com