Pioneering approach to social value recognised with another award win for Morgan Sindall and St Mark’s C of E School

St Mark's School win CSBA Award!

Morgan Sindall Construction has received an award for ‘Construction Project of the Year’ this week for works completed at St Mark’s Church of England School in Southampton.

Working with Southampton City Council on the project, Morgan Sindall and the project team demonstrated pioneering approaches to social value creation and formed a community-led initiative that will hugely benefit the local area. This follows the success that the tier one construction company had last year, winning three awards including ‘Business of the Year’.

Earlier this year St Marks School won ‘Best Social Value Project’ at the 2023 Social Value Awards and in 2021 won ‘Best Project Delivering Social Value’ at the Pagabo Awards. Morgan Sindall is also shortlisted for ‘Community Project of the Year’ at the Construction News Awards 2023 later this month and ‘Community Impact Initiative of the year’ at the BCI Awards in October. The latter is for Morgan Sindall’s construction partnership with Redbridge Community School in Southampton, which supports pupils with their learning, personal and academic development.

The award for ‘Construction Project of the Year’ and other shortlist award nominations recognises the hard work carried out at St Mark's School, Southampton’s first 4-16 all-through school. The St. Marks project completed in the winter of 2022 and was procured through the Pagabo framework. Morgan Sindall, worked with Southampton City Council to deliver the brand new 1,500 place building, which included a pre-school nursery, a two-form entry primary school, and a secondary school. The project team included Faithful & Gould, Architecture PLB, Scott White & Hookins, and Vail Williams.

The new all-through school provides children of the local community with a one stop educational hub to learn and develop, whilst supporting Southampton City Council’s wider agenda to address the growing requirement for school places in the area.

The award also acknowledged the outreach programmes Morgan Sindall conducted throughout the build. This will see a £75m social return on investment into the local community throughout the project’s lifecycle. In addition, the Morgan Sindall team engaged with 4,168 students through 362 hours of curriculum-related activities including site tours, career talks, work experience placements, and volunteer days.

Finally, the award win and shortlist announcements recognise the five-year education partnership with Redbridge Community School. The partnership supports pupils with their learning, personal and academic development and provides a further mentorship for students from the scheme when moving into further education and employment within the industry. As well as creating training opportunities within its own business, Morgan Sindall leverages its own supply chain and contacts in the industry to help local people get on the career ladder.

Cliff Kinch, area director for Morgan Sindall Construction, said: ‘The feedback we have had for St Mark’s CofE School has been incredible and winning ‘Construction Project of the Year’ at the Central South Business Awards, as well as being shortlisted for others, is a testament to everyone’s hard work. It is clear it has been a real game-changer for the local community.

Working with the Council and forming the Redbridge construction partnership, has demonstrated our deep commitment off the back of the St Marks project and it has been great to get the initiative started and to watch our business truly get behind the programme, offering their time and skills, and seeing the value it will add to the students involved, now and in the future.’

Councillor Alexander Winning, Cabinet Member for Children and Learning at Southampton City Council said: ‘'I am delighted that St Marks has won this award and it is a true testament to the hard work carried out by Morgan Sindall and others to expand Southampton’s first all-through school, providing education for children from ages 4–16. The expansion created 900 much-needed secondary places and has meant that we can cater to the increasing demand for pupil spaces in schools and ensure that every child in Southampton has a place to learn.”

Stephanie Bryant, headteacher at St Mark’s Primary School, said: ‘Thanks to a collaborative approach, the project was successfully delivered three months early, despite being hit with numerous challenges, including the global pandemic, so we were incredibly pleased with the outcome. We love our state-of-the-art school and it’s great that everyone’s work is recognised through this award win and being shortlisted for others in 2023.’

ENDS