Kier has been appointed by Cambridgeshire County Council to carry out the first phase of the design and construction of its brand new £45m Northstowe Education Campus.
The state-of-the-art teaching facilities will be a part of the new sustainable Cambridgeshire town Northstowe and address the lack of school places in the county.
Once complete, the 133,203sqft Northstowe Education Campus will be Cambridgeshire’s largest education campus and will comprise of a nursery, a 3FE primary school, a secondary school, Special Educational Needs (SEN) school and sixth form college. It will provide teaching and learning facilities for 3,000 students aged 0-19 years within the sustainable new development, Northstowe which is expected to have a population of 24,000.
Kier will deliver a new secondary school, the seventh owned by Cambridge Meridian Academies Trust (CMAT), that will provide places for up to 600 pupils aged 11-16; it will then be extended in two subsequent phases to allow for 1,800 pupils. It will feature a multi-purpose school hall / theatre space and drama studios, a large sports hall, a gym, two dance studios and all-weather floodlit football and hockey pitches.
In addition, Kier will create a 110-place Special Education Needs (SEN) school. Kier started enabling works on site in September with the first cohort of students starting in September 2019.
Mark Dady, managing director at Kier Eastern, commented: “Having previously constructed Pathfinder, Northstowe’s first primary school, we are delighted to now be delivering the next phase of education provision for the emerging Northstowe community.
“This addition to the school development further builds on our position as a leading UK provider of educational buildings and we are looking forward to starting the first phase of works on this project.”
Councilor Simon Bywater, Chairman of the Children and Young People Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “It has taken several years to get to this point and a huge congratulations to all the parties involved that have made it possible to get to where we are today. This is a truly one-of-a-kind, landmark project bringing all core education and community facilities together into one place for the children of Northstowe and Longstanton and the wider community.”
This latest win for Kier reinforces its strength within the educational sector and follows on from its recent appointment by Northumberland County Council to deliver a £42m school and leisure development in Ponteland.