Education project of the month: Harrow schools

It’s refreshing to see some good news coming out of the further education world after the Learning Skills Council funding fiasco – and that good news can currently be found in Harrow. Six schools in the borough have been able to open post-16 extensions this autumn after completion on time by contractor Kier Southern.

The latest projects to open are Canons (designed by Howard Fairbairn), Harrow (designed by Wintersgilll, Hatch End (designed by Aedas), Nower Hill (designed by Wintersgill), Park High School (designed by Aedas) and Rooks Heath (designed by Howard Fairbairn), which was completed in June. The Kier and Harrow partnership handed over the first of the new sixth form centres at Bentley Wood High at the start of the year.

Many of the new centres have been built in less than a year, involving extensive work scheduling outside normal hours. Site operations during the school day were also frequently suspended or postponed to avoid disturbing crucial exam periods.

Norman Elliott, construction director of Kier Harrow, said: “Enabling schools to continue functioning as normal during construction work was a key priority. We made every effort in our programming and logistical planning to minimise noise or disruption and avoid interrupting school activities as far as possible, despite many of the sites being very restricted in terms of working space and materials storage.”

The schools are part of an £80m design and build construction package under which Kier Southern, working as part of Kier Harrow projects, is creating eight new sixth-form centres and rebuilding one entire school, Whitmore High.