Swalcliffe Park Schools first eco-building was a Performing Arts studio in 2016 followed by a suite of autism friendly quiet spaces for individuals or small groups of students. Their new 470 m2 building will provide a Science Lab and prep room, IT room, changing rooms, toilets and a large staff room.
TG Escapes
Swalcliffe is a non-maintained specialist residential and day school for boys on the autism spectrum (10-19 yrs). The school is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) working with over 20 Local Authorities. The focus of their work is improving ‘Quality of Life’ outcomes for our students and their families.
Staffing has increased by 30% over the last two years due to increasing numbers of students, so the school needed additional professional space to enable staff to meet and collaborate.
Principal Rob Piner and Vice Principal, Rob Leigh explain their thinking in selecting TG Escapes modular timber frame system.
How are your existing two buildings working for you?
Really well as they are very spacious and light spaces. The buildings feel as good as when they were first made and we haven’t encountered any issues in terms of on-going maintenance, despite significant usage over the years.
What were your considerations when choosing this solution?
What we like about the TG Escapes offering is the complete design and build package. They are very straightforward and transparent about discussing costs and how this relates directly to the purpose of the building.
We also think the ‘green’ credentials are very important as it is for all schools and public buildings. In addition to this, the speed of building is much quicker than a traditional construction method and will enable us to have our new building this academic year, rather than a year down the line.
Why does this building system particularly suit your needs?
This style of building helps us to create autism friendly spaces with wide corridors as well as sensitive heating, lighting and acoustics. Our experience tells us that it works well with our students who have sensory challenges. The end result is an extremely solid building which also has total DDA compliance, enabling us to future proof our facilities to enhance Quality of Life outcomes for our students and their families.
How would you describe the customer service?
The service has been really first class. When you have a separate architect and builder there can be issues relating to communication, differences of opinion as well as co-ordination. TG Escapes offer an outstanding service and all those involved in the process have been very responsive and receptive to our requirements and timelines. The construction team are very polite, you can tell they want to be here and want to do a good job. We are really excited about getting the keys for our new building, possibly sooner than we thought so that we can improve the quality of our provision for all who our part of our school community.
