Education

CREATING SPACES DESIGNED FOR SEMH STUDENTS

The COVID-19 pandemic has stressed the importance of early-stage development for the next generation, especially at primary school level. The support children receive at school is pivotal to their progress both from an educational perspective as well as an emotional one.

The way that our schools are designed and built has a significant impact on their ability to deliver on these developmental needs. For example, are the classrooms comfortable and practical spaces in which to learn? Does the school’s facilities meet its operational requirements and have the wider surroundings been taken into consideration?

As with all educational establishments, providing a space tailored to the development of students with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) requires a careful consideration of these questions in order to understand the needs of the pupils and how the building around them can facilitate an engaging learning experience.

Morgan Sindall Construction’s Essex business recently completed work on a comprehensive refurbishment and expansion project at Ramsden Hall Academy in Billericay, Essex, in which many of these issues had to be addressed.

Ramsden Hall Academy works with up to 100 secondary-age and Year 6 male students who have an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP) for SEMH needs. The transformational project at the academy was delivered by the tier one contractor for the Department for Education (DfE), and is managed by the multi-academy trust, Parallel Learning Trust.

The refurbishment and expansion work included a brand-new, three-storey residential block, which will provide beds for 40 students and bolster the academy’s ability to develop the pupil’s independent living skills.

Alongside the residential area, Morgan Sindall Construction delivered an extension to the existing teaching block, creating seven new classrooms, seven new withdrawal rooms, a learning resource centre, main assembly hall, dining hall, conference room and four new special educational needs (SEN) therapy rooms.

The brief for this project was born from the Parallel Learning Trust and Ramsden Hall Academy’s mission ‘building positive futures from new beginnings’. Working together with the academy’s stakeholders, Morgan Sindall Construction has created a space designed to help students with social, emotional and mental health needs thrive both in school and in the wider community, while simultaneously ensuring that the academy would have an efficient, sustainable and easy-to-manage site. Enhancing the learning experience

Each aspect of the learning experience was considered by working through a typical day to identify the pupil journey and ensure safe and secure access and egress to both buildings.

To understand the complex needs and constraints within the teaching environment, Morgan Sindall Construction worked closely with academy representatives as well as ICT specialists. This collaboration was important to making sure that the design factored in a range of considerations that, if not accounted for, could affect the smooth day-to-day running of the academy. For example, this work ranged from assessing ligature risks and potential health and safety hazards to identifying the location of data points and power supply.

It was important to ensure each child was comfortable at school, and temperature was a key part of this. The team mitigated the risk of overheating with dedicated mixed-mode ventilation, providing assisted natural ventilation to all teaching areas. This was combined with CO2 and temperature monitoring as well as simple and effective controls so that the academy’s staff could easily evaluate and manage the onsite temperature. Mechanical cooling systems were installed in any area where ventilation alone wasn’t sufficient.

Sound was another key consideration and the acoustics of each classroom were delivered to a higher specification so that noise would not bounce around the rooms, thereby creating calmer and quieter spaces.

Minimising the environmental impact

The new residential and teaching buildings at Ramsden Hall Academy reflect the school’s vision that its new facilities should aspire to a high standard of building services, designed to reflect its operational needs, compliance with Building Regulations and best practice for an SEMH facility, whilst also minimising energy use as much as possible.

Ramsden Hall Academy now benefits from space heating and domestic hot water from highly-efficient gas-fired condensing boilers, which serve both the residential and teaching buildings. This ensures an efficient heating distribution whilst reducing energy use as well as being a robust and easilymaintainable solution.

A number of other green building solutions were incorporated, such as using low-energy LED lighting, highly-efficient fan motors, water minimisation measures and a building energy and management system that would help to easily regulate the school’s energy demands.

The academy’s energy usage will also be lowered thanks to a passive design that ensures a generous amount of daylight is able to enter the building without causing glare or overheating and which is combined with a high standard of airtightness and natural ventilation.

Thanks to these measures, a thermal modelling survey showed that the design of the new residential building achieved 14% lower CO2 emissions than regulation targets, while the teaching building managed 17% lower emissions.

As well as minimising the energy output, Morgan Sindall Construction aimed to leave the surrounding woodland area undisturbed. The site team took significant steps to ensure the preservation of local nature and wildlife and worked closely with ecologists to carry out extensive surveys as well as an archaeological dig.

Emma Baker, Head Teacher at Ramsden Hall Academy, said: “The new buildings have transformed the experience that our younger pupils and the residential children have at school.

“Throughout the project, the Morgan Sindall Construction Essex team worked with us to engage the pupils and that led to a real sense of ownership; the boys are proud of their new buildings. Having two areas where food can be served simultaneously has reduced dining hall incidents massively, and now break and lunchtimes are sociable and pleasant.”

In addition to the direct benefit of the academy, the project created 86p of social value for every pound of the project’s value. This included the upskilling of the community, with four apprentices working 87 weeks between them on the project and engaging with a further 12 students from Ramsden Hall Academy, inspiring them to begin careers in construction. In addition, 37% of the project value was spent with local SMEs, meaning the community significantly benefited financially.

Giving children and their families access to SEMH schools like Ramsden Hall Academy, where all the key considerations have been taken into account, is imperative to their early development and gives them the best chance in their studies and early career development.  www.morgansindallconstruction.com