Tender Information

Work didn't stop following submission of the Planning Application for the new school!!


The 'Design Team' have had a very busy couple of months producing detailed design drawings and specifications for the new school, to enable EG Carter to produce their cost plan. This is a very busy time for us all, working closely as a team to ensure the building is properly co-ordinated from the Building Structure and Fabric through to the Ventilation, Heating and Lighting Strategies....and of course to ensure that we can deliver the building on time and budget.


Below is an extract from the drawings showing how the school will be built and the different materials we are using.

Planning Application Submitted!

It seems to have been a long journey to get to this point, especially for the Coopers Edge School Parent Community Group who submitted their bid to run the school back in April 2009, but an important milestone has been reached with the submission of a Planning Application that was formally registered on the 20th August.

You can view the application and all of the submitted drawings and supporting information here:


http://planning.gloucestershire.gov.uk/PublicAccess/default.aspx
The Application Reference number is:  10/0087/STR3MJ


Fingers Crossed for a successful outcome!

Pre-Planning Design Consultation - Monday 5th July

We held our Pre-Planning Design Consultation in the evening at the Whittle Inn, located on the adjacent Gloucester Business Park and easily accessible for all residents and interested parties.

We displayed the developed designs for the school including, site plans, floor plans, 3D views of the building including elevational treatments, card models and sections. The entire Project Team was on hand to discuss the proposals with all attendees which numbered well over 50. This enabled all interested parties to view the selected scheme and comment on aspects of the design that they liked and also felt disappointed by.

We received some excellent feedback (both good and bad, but all constructive and useful) that has assisted us in developing the final scheme to be submitted for Planning Approval during August.

Public Meeting - Pre-Planning Design Consultation

We are excited to announce that we will be holding a second public consultation session at the Whittle Inn, Brockworth from 7-9pm on Monday 5th July.

Our developed designs will be on display including more detailed floor and site plans together with proposals for how the school might look and feel, both inside and out. There will be members of the Project Team on hand to talk you through the designs and answer any questions that you might have.

We hope you are able to join us for a cup of tea and coffee and for a chat about how the designs are taking shape.

BREEAM Workshop

Jones King, our M&E consultant for this project carried out an initial BREEAM Workshop which was attended by the whole Project Team.

BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) is the leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable design and has become the de facto measure used to describe a building's environmental performance. 

This initial workshop allowed us to understand how best to achieve a building with genuine sustainability credentials right from the outset, before we have even put pen to paper on a design for the school!

At the moment we are on target for achieving a high end 'Very Good' rating for the school.

Community Drop in Sessions

Last week we held a series of 'Drop in Sessions' which were an opportunity for the wider community and all interested parties to come down to site and meet us in the shiny new Site Office, look at the work we have done so far and see the early conceptual designs for the new School.

We had a fabulous turnout and over 100 people came to see us for a chat and to ask questions and leave feedback regarding the different options that we had come up with for how the School design might come together.

Here are the 5 options we displayed at the sessions....

We have agreed the Brief!

Following our Project Team Meeting on Friday 14th May we have agreed and 'signed off' our Brief for the school before we start to work up our initial concept designs.

The Brief has been developed following the first 'Briefmaking' Workshop where we agreed an initial headline brief for the new School. We have then challenged and developed this as we have carried out the School Visits, BREEAM Workshop, Whole Life Value Workshop, Stakeholder Workshop and Pupil Workshops.

We have prioritised the brief into three categories, 'Primary Design Drivers' that form the essential ethos for the design of the school and that are seen as 'Project Critical', 'Secondary Design Drivers' that are all important and integral to the design of the new school and finally 'Nice to haves' which we all would like to see included within the final scheme, but that may need to be reconsidered depending on budget and spatial issues.

Aled and I are both excited now, as we are entering the early conceptual design stage where we can start to put pen to paper and come up with some initial thoughts and ideas as to how the school might look, work and feel!