Construction Begins on New School Project in Birchington, Kent, UK, Featuring Low-Carbon Design

en.Wedoany.com Report on Mar 26th, Morgan Sindall Construction has signed a £13.4 million contract with the Department for Education to build a new 1,455 sq m two-storey teaching facility at Birchington Church of England Primary School in Kent. The project is being delivered in two phases. The first phase, completed in December 2025, involved installing two temporary accommodation blocks, enabling the school to vacate its existing buildings containing fragile Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC). The second phase, which has now commenced on site, involves the demolition of the old teaching block and the construction of the new permanent building.

The new school facility will include 10 classrooms, a library, an ICT suite, four group rooms, a kitchen, and a hall, with the second phase scheduled for completion in the summer of 2027. Externally, the hard landscape play area will be extended. The new teaching block will be constructed using an off-site manufactured timber frame structure, featuring a bio-solar roof design with extensive photovoltaic panels and powered by a ground source heat pump. The project team is implementing Morgan Sindall's 10 Tonne Carbon Challenge, encouraging collaboration across the supply chain to identify smart solutions to reduce carbon emissions by at least 10 tonnes.

Guy Hannell, Regional Director for Morgan Sindall Construction's Southern Home Counties region, said: "This project represents a fantastic opportunity to create a modern, sustainable learning environment that will benefit pupils, staff and the wider community for many years to come. Working closely with the Department for Education, Birchington CofE Primary School and our design team, we are focused on delivering a high-quality educational facility that prioritises wellbeing, energy efficiency and long-term value." Furthermore, Morgan Sindall is working with waste management consultancy Encore Environment to reuse materials from the site prior to demolition, with reclaimed bricks being repurposed in the eastern elevation as a feature. The CarboniCa tool will be used to calculate embodied carbon during the design and construction phases. This school construction project exemplifies the practice of sustainable building concepts within educational facilities.