CASE STUDY: Bushey Meads Secondary School – New SEND Facility

Develop new facility dedicated to supporting students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

 
 

About
Bushey Meads Secondary School

Bushey Meads School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form, with academy status. It is located in Bushey, Hertfordshire. The school forms part of the Bushey St James Trust, in partnership with Little Reddings School and Hartsbourne Primary School.

The Project

Hertfordshire County Council were investing in the development of new Specialist Resource Provisions (SRPs), so they could address a gap in the county’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service. Bushey Meads Secondary School who is within that county was selected to benefit from their investment. The council began working with the school on ideas. ECP were initially engaged to assess the feasibility of what they were proposing. 

How ECP Helped

Although a design had been proposed from the council’s framework architect, we identified a few areas for refinement. This was thanks to our established relationship with Bushey Meads from other CIF funded projects. We knew the school’s estate very well, and how different areas were mainly used. 

With our initiative we reworked the design so that it improved accessibility throughout the facility, and with the approach to the main entrance of the school. Our recommended changes also helped concentrate the construction of the facility to one area of the building. Which in turn  reduced the disruption to the school grounds, and most importantly to the students. 

The overall project was managed end-to-end by our team, and both the school and the council are very pleased with the outcome. The new facility known as ‘The Laurel’ has the capacity to support up to 20 pupils at one time. It provides them with a safe place for students to go when needed. 

ECP - Bushey Meads - The Laurel Project

Project value

£1.4 million

Completed

February 2024

Working with ECP on this project made the whole process more manageable. We engaged them for their full consultancy services, so they supported us right from the start of the project during the initial feasibility and planning phases, and then onto the design, construction and final handover. Their regular weekly visits to site and the monthly progress meetings kept us fully informed of how the build was going, and it was great to understand what was happening along the way. They also did all they could to keep the disruption to the school to a minimum, even when we needed to displace a few of the classrooms at times. We’re delighted with the end result, our new Special Resource Provision ‘The Laurel’ has been really well received by staff and students and we look forward to working with ECP again on future projects.
Rachael Coombs
BSJT Business Manager

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