The Meadows Primary (Madeley) gets a mini makeover.
The Meadows Primary is a primary school located in a small village called Madeley, in the ward of Newcastle Under Lyme, North Staffordshire
The primary school is small, traditional village school, with some parts of the building dating back to the late 1800’s. Over the last few years, the internal corridors and classrooms have started to look dated and tired, and it was evident that work needed to be done to enhance the learning environment. Shaw Education Trust, working alongside the leadership team at the school, developed a plan to refurbish some of the internal elements to modernise the look and feel of the school. The Meadows Primary had a brand-new state of the art nursery built a few years ago and it was important to bring the rest of the provision up to the same standard.
Simon Bryan and Alison Landon-Gallimore, Estate project managers for Shaw Education Trust were assigned the job to oversee the refurbishment works. The works were split into four main elements:
- Fire & External Door Upgrades
- Re-decoration of corridors and circulation spaces
- Upgrade the whole school to LED lighting.
- Replacement of suspended ceilings.
The first phase was to replace the old doors within the school, the original doors were not fire rated and in a poor state of repair. During the few weeks of the school holidays, 12 FD30 fire doors were installed – including all doors in corridors and classrooms. With regards to the doors themselves, it was decided to keep with the traditional look of the school, so a beech laminate finish was chosen. The project also included upgrading some external doors to increase the security and safeguarding line of the school. The fire door project brought many advantages to the school, not only do the doors look more modern and look better aesthetically, but they are also 30-minute fire rated and help with sound reduction between classrooms.
Following the fire door installation, the second half of the summer holidays were taken up with decoration works. The old colour scheme looked very dark & dated, so it was decided to go with basic white walls and anthracite woodwork, The white colour, provided a much better cleaner, lighter, brighter environment, it also created a great blank canvass to showcase some of the children’s work.
The lighting upgrade took place over the October half term. The DfE Energy Efficiency grant was used to upgrade all the lighting in the school to LED. The new LED lighting is over 50% more efficient than the old fluorescent lighting it replaced, with massively helps with the school energy costs. The upgraded LED lighting combined with the decoration, really helped to brighten the school, and more importantly create a much better leaning environment for the children.
The final phase of the project was to replace the ceiling tiles. The old ceiling tiles were very poor & discoloured, with many tiles cracked and broken. The ceiling tiles were replaced over the half term break and has completed the makeover within the school.
Although not the biggest or most complex project that was completed by Shaw Education Trust over the summer holiday, the overall impact to the school has been huge. It has helped to provide a clean, bright, and calming environment that supports the focus and concentration of the pupils. In addition, it has helped to make the school inviting for visitors and potential new pupils. The voice of the community has been incredibly positive about the improvements made and what a difference they have made to the overall look and feel of the school. Overall, approx. £50K has been invested into the school lover the last 12 months and Emma, the Headteacher really appreciates all the improvements. It shows by just upgrading a few elements in the school, the huge effect it can have on the learning and teaching environment.
Meadows Primary Mini Makeover
