Burnt Oak Junior School, Sidcup. Abbott Construction

Burnt Oak Junior School, Sidcup

The project at Burnt Oak Junior School is another example of our ability to work with a School and their pupils in and around a live environment.

The works had to be carried out in several phases to facilitate the alterations and extensions. This involved careful and considerate planning and liaison between our site team and the School’s staff as well as with the project team.

A temporary village of accommodation, classrooms and toilets were installed to allow the phase 1 demolition works to progress. The existing toilet facilities were then demolished to make way for the new hall extension.

Phases 2-4 comprised refurbishment programmes within the existing School. This work was mainly sequential in order for the School to take possession of newly completed areas before we could commence on following phases.

Whilst the internal alterations to the existing School were carried out we simultaneously built the new part of the School. This extension provides a new hall with associated stores, a library, 4 new teaching classrooms and new toilets for pupils and staff. The new hall neatly fits in to the recess at the back of the School where the existing toilets were once located. The library and teaching facilities are attached to the existing School and extend out towards the playing fields.

The final phase provides a new paved entrance to the front of the school together with boundary fencing, gates and planting. This work was carried out after the School had taken possession of the new building which allowed the temporary village to be removed.
The works were carried out to a tight timescale and were completed on time and to budget.

Client: Bexley Council
Architect: Hazel McCormack Young / Open Architecture
Value: £1.79M

The external design of the extension is sympathetic to the fabric of the existing school adopting predominantly traditional materials of similar colours and textures offset with a twist of modernism which is evident in the use of sun pipe / wind catcher technology. The extension is a natural, seamless development of the school which provides a modern identity without competing architecturally with the existing locally listed building.