Eden Girls Leadership Academy

In the town of Small Heath, Birmingham, there has been a growing priority over the last two years to increase school places in the region. As one of the contractor partners on the Constructing West Midlands Framework, Birmingham City Council commissioned Morgan Sindall to design and build a new 48,000 square foot secondary school.

The new development comprises of a three-storey main building which houses, five specialist laboratories, three IT classrooms and 15 general teaching rooms, including a learning resource centre, a reflection hall for prayer and a state-of-the-art catering facility.

External play provision included a multi-use all weather pitch, a 40-space car park, that included disabled and minibus parking and four electric car charging points, and a four-court sports hall.

Key Stats

Completed 5 weeks early
9/10 customer satisfaction
96% Waste diverted from Landfill
New build in a constrained site
Use of the MySchool model
£12.2 million social value invested locally

At a Glance

Client

Birmingham City Council

Budget

£17.1 million

Completion

April 2021

Location

Birmingham

Sector

Education

Aerial view of the completed Eden Girls Academy in Birmingham

Our Approach

Despite the challenges incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the project was completed five weeks ahead of programme which was made possible thanks to the efficiency of the MySchool model and early involvement of key supply chain partners.

By implementing the Morgan Sindall Construction MySchool solution, the team were able to deliver speed and cost-effectiveness using a pre-designed model to develop the new 600-place secondary school.

Collaboration during the pre-construction stage was key to the successful build of the school. The team implemented several design features to make sure the building was sustainable and eco-friendly. Significant investments were made by installing all rooms with low energy LED lights and air source heat recovery units.

The location of the main build presented a challenge to our team, as it was located upon a manmade plateau with three steeply sloping sides. By collaborating with our sub-contractor and design team, we were able to construct a 4-metre high by 30-metre-wide precast retaining structure to utilise the available space more efficiently. During the early works we also relocated an existing live substation and electric supply cables that ran down the centre of the new access road and through the centre of the proposed school development.

The Eden Girls school project went a long way in supporting the local community of Small Heath. The project generated over £12.2 million in social value which included over 200 hours volunteered. The team also supported local SMEs with 100% of the project spend going towards these local businesses.

Our team used the Local Multiplier 3 (LM3) model, which is a social value methodology used by companies, government, or community organisations, to measure the impact of their spending and ensure that it generated local economic impact and benefit to the community. 70% of the project supply chain was procured within a 30-mile radius of the project.

Morgan Sindall Construction and Eden Girls’ have signed a Partnership Pledge. This means we have pledged to work purposefully together to support Eden pupils with their learning, personal and academic development in the future. The team also undertook several community activities, notably a £6,000 donation to EcoPark, a local Wildlife Trust environmental education centre.

Constructing West Midlands has a proven track record in the delivery of high calibre projects in collaboration with leading contractors such as Morgan Sindall Construction. Throughout this project, the Constructing West Midlands, Morgan Sindall Construction and Acivico teams worked in close partnership and in collaboration with Star Academies to deliver a modern educational facility which provides a vital resource for the local community and a fantastic learning environment for the pupils and staff.” - Sara Smith, Senior project manager for Acivico

The new school campus is the realisation of several years of hard work and planning and we are all delighted that this dream has now become a reality.

Morgan Sindall Construction has worked meticulously throughout the project to deliver a fantastic new school site providing our pupils and staff with a school that they truly deserve. We are looking forward to many years of exceptional learning in our new permanent home.” - David Holland, Executive Director: Capital Programmes & Estates at Star Academies