June is upon us and so came the rain... and the problems!

Faith Centre Steel Work

Whatever happened to "Flaming June"eh? It seems like for years our best weather has always been May/June leading up to a usually damp summer but the rain came early and bought with it some problems!

Now, having, in a former life, worked in the building industry I can safely say no matter how hard you try to prevent problems happening they still happen! We are working/living/learning in a building site and with it comes all the problems associated with refurbishing a building. It's not easy for the contractors, who it has to be said have been golden, but it's not easy for us in school either. Jack hammers, cement mixers, cranes, power drills hammers and the like all make a lot of noise. The dust is horrendous, so, if its hot you have to think twice about opening windows for example!
However, a deluge of rain over the weekend highlighted a problem in the fabric of the building where new joins old and we had a leak!
It culminated with a few stains, a damp carpet in the corridor and sadly, for me in ICT, a soggy computer that no longer works! In fairness to the builders they acted swiftly and plugged the leak and have offered to pay for the repair to the pc, so, all will be good in the end. BUT!! This is not mentioned when we are told we are having a new school being built and you cannot begin to imagine the impending disruption that ensues once the contractors come on site!

Onwards and upwards as they say!

The school is a little behind schedule but, it is really starting to take shape "good and proper" now! We have had sight of our new server room on the first floor of the new build by the main hall and over the holidays BT laid the new fibre optic to this new room for the school broadband feed and another to the temporary server room to keep connectivity all in order. Stephen, my techy, ably supported by James, from E-services, made all the connections and...it did not work!

Theatre roof as seen from above

As it was Friday, they left and had a ponder and a "cunning plan" was hatched! Monday saw a new week, and a commbined effort between us all quickly sorted the problem and all was working within the hour!

So what else is happening?

The newly drained and laid football field

The roof on the new Theatre is ready for its final layer of stainless steel, the new Faith centre steelwork is up and giving a clear hint to its definitive shape and although I have not seen it yet, the new MUGA is painted and looks the part! Generally around site you can see that the size of the new build is enormous taking up most of the "footie field" that used to be infront of the tennis courts and from pictures I have seen, the Football fields behind the old fencing which have had the new drainage installed are now flat and look nice and green. Perhaps now we can have a good game down there in the winter months with out taking a mud bath and chopping the filed up? We will see soon enough! But it looks good...
You can see in the pictures that the inside is starting to take shape as services are being installed and some interior walls define the structure hinting at things to come. Let's not forget... there is still a long way to go before completion and we are nearly one year into the build. It hasn't been easy for anyone concerned and we have just over a year left before it should all be finished.

Will it be worth it? "You betchya!!"

May... storms are upon us!

New Energy Centre Steelwork

Well, we are well into May and work has been gathering pace but frankly from the outside not a lot appears to have been happening, dig deeper and you find that in areas difficult for staff and students to reach we can see things are moving on well!

At the front of school the Energy Centre is progressing well and the steel work is going up. An area has been cleared in what was the garden of rememberance and trees have sadly had to be cut down to accomodate this work. I am assured that a planned replacement planting procedure will happen later in the landscaping period of the build!

Our friendly builder once again keeps us up to speed with what is actually going on...

Theatre Roof

New Meets Old

New Windows

On the Refurb block the fitting of the balconies is complete. This has allowed the windows to be installed, complete with glass. The single ply to the main roof area is complete. The redundant roof light has been in filled and the roof covering taken over the enclosure. The plant support steels have been erected over the former stair area. The timber cladding works have commenced with brackets and insulation. The art/English block roof has had the single ply laid apart from the section adjacent to the faith centre. Finally the roof light frame work has arrived on site and fitting has commenced. The roof light areas have been temporarily weatherproofed in such a way installation of the roof light frame work can continue. The wall between the art room and the swimming pool has been continued, and the external walls erected. The ground floor windows have been installed The first floor the external brickwork has continued at high level, The windows have been installed and glazed.  On GLK windows have been glazed. The retaining walls to the ground floor adjacent to the IWA block has been completed allowing this area of floor slab to be completed including the flight of stairs adjacent to the headmasters study. On the IWA block the window to the ground floor science class room floors have been glazed. The windows on the first and second floors have been installed and glazed. Internal partitioning is 90% complete with boarding to one side. The sample room has progressed but needs final aesthetic alterations before final submission for approval. In both blocks the installation of ventilation ductwork is underway. Lecture Theatre cladding has had the inner liner tray fitted and work is concentrating in forming the curves at the front of the building. Ply wood is being bent to give the final curved shape. The sports pitches have been cultivated and stone picked and seeded. The energy centre main steel frame has been erected. This has allowed the base for the flue to be cast and reinforced concrete ducts for the pipes and cables to commence. On Tettenhall Special School the foundations are complete. Drainage pops are complete to the two brickwork single storey  areas. Preparation for pouring the floor slabs is underway. Main drainage has continued. The big push over the Easter holiday was the installation of ducts and sub mains cable from the energy centre around the front of the school to the rear of the hall. Also we have installed the sub mains cable from the energy centre to the main switch area in the ground floor of the science block. This included pulling pool heating pipes and sprinkler pipes plus water main into Tettenhall. This work cause major logistical issues during the period as it cut off access to 70 % of the building. Central Networks have installed the High Voltage substation plinth in the front service yard.  Transco have installed the gas supply and housing to Tettenhall . We have constructed the water meter pit to Tettenhall. We have been able to commence the construction of the new bell mouth to the service yard. Over the Easter period we installed the permanent partition wall to the main hall and three temporary partitions to the small hall and servery areas.Also we have formed two partitions on the first floor which when the doors are installed will provide a temporary fitness suite.

April and spring is in the air...

School is taking on a new look now as the steel framework is boxed in and the windows start being fixed into place. Our friendly builder gave me some facts:

The inside, looking out, of the new theatre

The building has now started to be enclosed. Key items that are underway are:-

• Roofing works to the IWA block is virtually complete
• Roofing to the General teaching block has commenced
• External walling is progressing well
• Windows have been fitted to all elevations other than the main entrance
• Mechanical and Electrical services have started to be installed
• The lecture theatre cladding has commenced
• A number of the large diameter drains have been installed between Kings and Tettenhall
• We have installed a 700 cu m attenuation tank to control the future run off of surface water.
• Coupled with this we have fitted a petrol/oil interceptor to the main storm outfall sewer.
• Internal partitioning is underway with rooms now taking shape.
• On Tettenhall the foundations have been completed allowing the steel frame to start



Cladding for theatre

• We have also built the brick work on Tettenhall up to the level of the floor slab. This will allow the floor slab to be cast.

Work over the next few weeks include

• Forming new entrances off Regis Road
• Continuing with floor slabs and brickwork to Tettenhall
• Continuing with partitions to Kings
• Erecting the faith centre
• Instantiation of main service routes through the buildings and campus.
• Commencing construction of the energy centre.

School council get first look!

We have had no accidents so far and have worked virtually 60,000 hrs to date.

We have taken the School Council round the site and they were extremely interested asking lots of questions. We have helped out the local allotment holders with free topsoil and wood chippings.

So... we can see that a lot is happening albeit some might say it doesn't appear so! In the coming months when fitting out really gets under way less and less will be visible from outside but, hopefully, we will get some impressive internal shots and our first sight of the new building!

 
On a different note... I am going to ask staff and pupils, past and present, to forward anecdotes of the school. (Keep them clean) I intend to let people do it by email and then I can vet the posts first and hopefully we can have a page of memories that may mean something to some of you... here is the email address:
stories@kings-wton.co.uk


Finally, should we have a caption competition?

"I've had a hard day at the office dear!"