New School Hall for Northill CE Academy, Bedfordshire
When Central Beds Council put out a tender for Northill to have a new hall constructed, Vertis were able to demonstrate their experience of building a school hall for a nearby school, Sutton Primary earlier in the year. Having received extremely positive feedback from Sutton’s headteacher, Lucy Chapman, Vertis were appointed the contract.
As part of the local authority’s move to a two-tier education system, Northill a small village lower school educating years 1-4, had already been extended to include years 5 and 6. Their old hall had been turned into a classroom previously. Vertis were appointed to construct a new hall with a kitchen and small classroom space within.
Over the course of a few months, Vertis designed and built a modern, inspiring modular school hall. Special attention has been given to creating an energy efficient, sustainable building, which is central to every Vertis school building project.
The new school hall is a multi-purpose and versatile building; the classroom space within can be used for group work and the school can now offer extra peripatetic music lessons. The hall acts as the assembly, worship, PE, performance and music space as well as the main dining area for school lunches. The children can now all eat lunch together in one space. Vertis has also completed works inside the main school building. The area that was previously used as a kitchen has been replaced with a much-needed headteacher’s office and new toilets were added for the early years classroom and redecoration throughout.
What does the headteacher think of the new school hall at Northill?
Northill's Headteacher, Siobhan Wright (pictured below) explained the difference the school hall is making to the school;
“The children love the new hall. They were so excited to finally be allowed in there once everything had been completed. There’s a wider range of PE activities that they can now do and they love being able to have lunch together”.
“We can now serve hot meals at lunch times and with the new professional-grade catering facilities, another school in the trust benefits from us providing them with hot meals.
“We have incredible facilities here at the school – the hall is visually striking. It has large windows looking out over the school fields, the children love looking at nature all around them. The windows let light flood in.”
“The new hall has so much built into it. The sustainable building materials, the solar panels on the roof and the ventilation system used in the building to help remove CO2 and keep pupils alert – it is very impressive. The children and staff think the new building is incredible.”
Specifications
Northill's school hall has been designed to be extremely energy efficient and is built for longevity:
- Sustainable building materials. The building fabric exceeds thermal insulation and air-tightness requirements to afford a high-performance, sustainable and low-running-cost operation in conjunction with movement-sensing, daylight-harvesting automated LED lighting controls.
- Solar panels on roof. Generating electricity to reduce running costs.
- Smart heating systems. Air-source heat pump installation supplies both a zoned underfloor heating system and efficient water heating.
- Passivent ventilation system. Equipped with an energy-efficient Passivent mixed-mode hybrid ventilation system, stale air is extracted and replaced with fresh air, whilst optimising CO2 levels. This, in conjunction with the air conditioning units installed, helps pupils stay alert for longer, combating potential sleepiness and improving attention as a result of improved air quality.
- Professional-grade kitchen facilities. Expertly designed & installed with durable resilient stainless steel construction, wipe-clean hygiene wall cladding and commercial ventilation and heat-recovery systems.
- Designed for longevity. The exterior is clad in durable vertical Western Red Cedar with dark grey commercial-grade aluminium windows and doors. Interiors are finished in impact-resistant plastered walls, durable flooring and with acoustic-rated performance grid ceilings.
Working with Craig
Northill is part of the Diocese of St Albans trust of 14 schools. Siobhan has been telling everyone in these schools how great an experience it has been working with Craig to create their new modular school building with Vertis:
“Craig is incredible. He is regularly present on site to make sure everything runs smoothly. He is extremely proactive and knows how important it is to keep the site secured and the children safe at all times. His team have been excellent throughout and Craig always came up with great solutions to all our questions. We have been recommending him to everyone in the diocese.”
Have a project in mind? Getting going is easy
Book a free consultation
We’ll find a time that works for where we come and visit your site to hear about the challenges you’re facing and what you’re looking for next.
Define your project together
We’ll propose a solution whether that’s using a preset design or creating something completely new to meet your needs. Once we’ve agreed what you’re looking for, we review timings, cost/finance and installation logistics.
Your building is scheduled in
We sign contracts and schedule the build. That’s in the diary, and now the last thing to do is get building!