Project: Archbishop Courtenay C. of E. Primary School, Tovil, Kent

Client: The Diocesan Board of Education, Canterbury

Role: Quantity Surveyor

Sector: Education

Contract: Standard Building Contract with Quantities incorporating Revision 2 2009

The existing Archbishop Courtenay Primary School is on a site incapable of supporting further expansion and the increasing roll dictated relocation to an alternative, local site.

The site of a former BT depot provided enough space for the construction of an eleven-classroom school and separate nursery, with potential to accommodate a further four classrooms, if so required, to satisfy local demand. The brown-field site is not ideal, with extensive hardstandings and structures and steep slopes and banks, which have presented many challenges to the design. The provision of sufficient, level play areas has been a particular difficulty.

In order to minimise the opportunity for vandalism and squatting, the site has been cleared of all buildings under an enabling works contract.

The school is part single, part two-storey traditional construction, designed with particular emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency. The structure comprises trench-fill foundations, load-bearing solid masonry walls with external insulation and applied finish and a zinc roof with photovoltaic installations. The nursery is single-storey and of similar construction to the school.

Environmentally-friendly provisions include rainwater harvesting, ground source heat pump and a wind turbine.

The Woodley Coles LLP are providing a full quantity surveying service on this project from budget estimate to agreement of the final accounts for the both the enabling works and remodelling contracts