The increasing demand for school places has resulted in a record number of orders over the past year for interim classroom buildings from Portakabin, the UK’s leading modular building manufacturer.
David Laws, Minister of State for Schools, has announced the need for 417,000 additional school places by 2015 under the Targeted Basic Need programme to help address the impact of rising birth rates across the country. According to the Office for National Statistics, more babies were born in the UK in 2011-12 than in any year since 1972, which will have a significant impact on primary school places. The Local Government Association has said some areas will face a 20% shortfall in places by 2015 and around 1,000 of the local school planning districts will be over capacity by 2015-16.
In the last 12 months, Portakabin has worked with more than 300 primary and secondary schools and colleges, delivering around 400 interim classroom buildings to accommodate up to 10,000 pupils and students. The biggest demand has been for primary school facilities and particularly in the London area, but with projects spanning from Tyneside to Cornwall and delivered to the shortest lead times.
According to Robert Snook, Director and General Manager of Portakabin Hire, “The use of a modular solution speeds up the build process and so allows schools, colleges and local authorities to respond to the urgent need for additional places more quickly. By completing most of the building work before getting to site, we are able to radically reduce programme times, improve the safety of school sites and ensure much less disruption to teaching. There is also no compromise on the quality of the classroom accommodation just because the buildings are for short-term use.”
All interim facilities provided by Portakabin are designed and constructed to permanent standards and in line with the latest Department for Education guidelines for teaching and learning. The buildings incorporate design best practice, current thinking on anti-bullying strategies and generously-sized, light, modern classrooms. They can be configured as learning clusters, standalone teaching blocks and even single classroom buildings to meet a school’s precise requirements.
Portakabin buildings can be fitted out as classrooms, offices, toilets and changing rooms and for more specialist applications such as dance studios, dining rooms, domestic science and general science laboratories. There is also now the option for buildings to be clad to create a more permanent appearance and to help integrate the facilities on an existing school site.
Interim teaching facilities give schools, colleges and local authorities the flexibility to increase school places to maintain the highest standards of teaching during major construction or refurbishment work or to meet a short-term surge in pupil numbers.
Portakabin manufactures a wide range of buildings for interim applications and has the widest hire and visitor centre network in the UK. It can deliver bespoke projects and standardised accommodation solutions in the most challenging timescales, with less disruption and less impact on the environment.
For further information about modular buildings for interim use, visit www.portanews.co.uk, email [email protected] or call 0845 401 0010.
