A 210-place school in Leicestershire, created to meet the needs of new housing developments in the area and was procured through our Major Projects Framework.
The former Normandy Way primary school, now called Hollycroft Primary School at Normandy Way is on the outskirts of Hinckley. It’s a key element in the ten-year Normandy Way development where house builder Bloor Homes is creating a new community with 850 homes, retail space and community facilities. The school is a standardised one form entry primary school with built in resilience to be extended to two form entry as the local demand grows.
This project supports Leicestershire County Council’s draft climate emergency policy and be Net Zero Carbon in operation.
Willmott Dixon is harnessing energy usage prediction modelling to help the school become net-zero in operation for both regulated and unregulated energy.
The design process used can be emulated so the council can more efficiently roll-out net-zero primary schools in the future – reducing design time, costs, inefficiencies and waste.
Construction includes an easily assembled timber frame that will result in fewer embodied carbon emissions than a traditional steel frame.
Priority was given to materials that will enhance the building’s thermal efficiency – such as enhanced fabric walls, floors and roof. Enhanced performance windows result in lower impact from outdoor temperatures and consequential heating and cooling costs.
Offsite manufacturing also reduced the number of deliveries to the site and halved the projected construction time frame length for the timber frame erection in comparison to using traditional methods, which will in turn enable the pupils and staff to move into the new school earlier.
“I’m proud to say it will be the first Leicestershire school that will be carbon neutral and pupils that attend will learn in an environment that uses renewable energy, has an ‘A’ energy rating and the latest interactive learning equipment. We hope children will love learning in the new building." - Deborah Taylor, Councillor, Leicestershire County Council.
The project's added social value account activities included a range of community engagement events. This involved 1,176 hours dedicated to supporting young people into work with weekly virtual mock interviews, careers talks and employability sessions. A 38% social return on investment was attained as well as, 12 employment opportunities created and 240 apprentice weeks supported.
This is Leicestershire County Council's first net zero school and achieved considerate constructors scheme score of 44 and rated BREEAM excellent with £5,000 spent with social enterprises, 79% local spend within 40 miles and 97% Waste diverted from landfill.
Customer: Leicestershire County Council
Project cost: £7.9m
Feasibility: July 2021
Planning: August 2021
Construction: September 2022
Completion: 25 August 2023
Click here to download the PDF case study or find out more about the framework here.