Sidlaw View Primary School
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Summary
Designing in partnership
This two-stream, two-storey primary also has a co-located nursery and young mothers’ unit. It was designed for an anticipated maximum of 400 pupils, with 100 FTE nursery places and nine places for babies / under two year olds, for mothers attending the adjacent Baldragon Academy.
The nursery replaces the existing Jessie Porter Nursery School, providing an additional integrated standalone provision for up to 30 two-year-olds.
It features large, airy classrooms, break-out spaces, a dining and assembly hall, a production kitchen and an IT room.
Designing in partnership with Dundee City Council
The project was procured through the Scape National Major Works framework. Scape Group is a public sector owned built environment specialist that offers a full suite of national frameworks and innovative design solutions. This route gave the flexibility to use Dundee City Council's (DCC) in-house design team with Robertson being able to provide support at an early stage.
Our co-located preconstruction team worked in DCC's Capital Projects Office, helping the client develop their brief and supporting the design team. This arrangement has been so beneficial to both the client and Robertson that our team will remain within DCC's offices for the foreseeable future working on further primary school projects to be delivered through Scape.
Efficient processes providing significant savings
The Sidlaw View site is immediately adjacent to Baldragon Academy, a project Robertson is also delivering with DCC. We took advantage of a number of opportunities to provide DCC with £75k savings.
These included:
- Common supply chain between projects
- Shared water supply and electricity sub-station
- Shared site set-up, including welfare facilities and, towards the completion of Sidlaw View, sharing Baldragon's site accommodation to allow external works to progress
- Surplus topsoil transferred to the Baldragon site, which reduced the costs associated with off-site disposal
- A single traffic management plan, maximising residents' safety and minimising disruption
Delivery of both of these projects by a single contractor has enhanced coordination, communication and cooperation.
A range of benefits to the community
During construction, the project focussed on delivering Scape's requirements of a range of tangible benefits for the local community:
- Providing eight-week work placement opportunities for five young offenders, working collaboratively with Dundee City Council's Employability Programme and one of our sub-contractors, leading to full-time employment for all five participants.
- Over 70% of all subcontractors were located within 10 miles of the site and they were all SMEs.
Dundee City Council's Community Development Manager was delighted with the delivery of community benefit KPI's, although DCC requested that we deliver additional activities. These included:
- The provision of a graduate opportunity during the life of the project.
- Donation of surplus materials, delivered through an innovative upcycling station allowing locals to make use of timber and paving.
