Building a better future in Salisbury

Staff and pupils at Highbury School in Salisbury took part in a turf cutting ceremony to celebrate the start of construction of their new primary school.

The new school will replace the existing building which has fallen into disrepair and has been found to contain asbestos, making refurbishment difficult and expensive.  Wiltshire County Council decided to replace the building with a purpose built classroom block containing modern facilities for ICT, science, design and food technology.

The £3.1m building contains sixty-four rooms of which seven are main classrooms and two are specialist learning centres to accommodate the varying needs of the pupils.  Also featured is a hall, kitchen and meeting room which will be available community use.

Ben Britter, Beard Project Manager said “The new school is a great project for the pupils and the local community and it will be satisfying to know we have contributed to the education of local children for many generations to come.”

Beard has been working closely with Wiltshire County Council and the selected design team on the building’s design for six months.  A valuation engineering exercise was undertaken by Beard and Wiltshire County Council to rationalise certain elements of the design and Beard used their construction expertise to simplify elements of the building and reduce build costs.

Beard will be giving the pupils a chance to learn about construction and health and safety through a series of talks and visits throughout the project.  A viewing platform is being formed on the site boundary to give pupils and visitors an excellent view of the site and the chance to monitor progress regularly without the dangers of having to enter a construction site on a regular basis.