If you are wanting to have a mobile classroom or modular classrooms, then we have the solution. We wanted to make sure that not only was the building manufactured to a high quality standard but that is also looked attractive and was something you could be proud of.

The buildings are all pre-manufactured at our partner’s factory in Cumbria including all internal partitioning, sanitary ware, kitchen equipment, electrics, heating and lighting. Each unit is then delivered to site, fully assembled, on the back of a low loader truck and positioned onto existing baseworks. These buildings can be up to 40ft in length and 20ft in width.

The great advantage to having mobile classrooms is that on-site time is minimal compared to a traditional build which can typically last for 8-10 weeks. With mobile classrooms, you could expect this to be reduced to 2-3 weeks – so far less inconvenience and disruption to your school.

We are able to offer standard classroom packages (see downloads) which are already fully Building Regulation compliant or we can manufacture to your own individual specification and internal layouts.

Insulated all year round use outdoor classrooms and shelters

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modular classroom with larch cladding

We have taken the traditional open-sided, gazebo style outdoor classroom – in all its sizes and shapes including octagonal, square and rectangular – and adapted it for the many and varied uses that an educational establishment now demands. Typically due to the nature of the need or requirement, the building needs to be totally enclosed and in many cases fully insulated for all year round use.

Schools use these type of buildings for a whole host of reasons and in the past we have supplied them for the following:

  • Outdoor learning hub & classroom
  • Library
  • Temporary classroom
  • Sensory room
  • Meeting room
  • Community room
  • Nurture or break-out room
  • Prayer room
  • Quiet study room

The majority of outdoor classrooms that we supply to schools are below 30m2. And there is a reason for this and that is that they do not need to be passed through building control for approval so it is just makes the process a bit simpler and in some cases, cheaper. But that is not to say that the enclosed outdoor classrooms are not built to the exacting standards that building regs would require.

Dependent upon the use and application, it is also possible to fully insulate these buildings and we therefore have two levels of insulation packages to suit different needs, usage levels, budgets and most importantly whether a school intends to heat the building as well. But we also use either cedar or Siberian larch both externally – the roof is also attractive cedar shingle tiles. All timber is a natural insulator anyway but cedar has additional thermal properties which make it the best natural insulator of all softwoods – so its excellent thermal properties can make for some savings if the building is being heated. If it is not being heated however, then insulation still works in two ways – keeps out the heat in the summer and keeps in the heat in the winter!

There are many options to choose from in this range. Firstly the shape as they are available in octagonal, square and rectangular formats. As they are modular, it is very easy to have your own walls, windows and door configurations and specifications. Other options include double glazing, an attractive atrium roof to allow in lots of natural light from above, laminate flooring, the afore-mentioned insulation packages, internal partitioning, timber sub-frame base for uneven ground or grass installs and various eco initiatives such as renewable energy power and rainwater harvesting systems.

For buildings above 30m2, we are also able to offer these in a modular form and typically this size of outdoor classroom allows for WCs, a small lobby area and a kitchenette facility.

For more information on our outdoor classroom and modular school buildings range, please visit our website www.hideouthouse.com or contact us on 01865 858982 or email info@hideouthouse.com

 

A Unique Solution for a Temporary Mobile Classroom

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We were recently approached with an interesting enquiry from the head teacher of a primary school with a nursery provision. Basically they wanted…or needed…some extra space to be used for a whole host of reasons – namely break out sessions, nurture room, outdoor learning, extra space for the 2 year olds for the nursery and last but not least as a community room. But they didn’t need anything too big, it had to be insulated as they wanted to use it all year round, heating and lighting requirements and it had to have a WC/washbasin facility too as it would be used out of school hours.

Oh and one last item on the wish list, it had to be capable of easily being removed in a couple of years time as the school was potentially going to be relocated! Quite a challenging list I think you will agree.

But luckily we have the ideal solution. We have another division in our business which deals with the leisure market and one of our most popular products we sell is a mini lodge which is essentially a pre-manufactured unit and is used as guest sleeping accommodation and usually comes complete with an en-suite and kitchen area. As it is used for these purposes, it is fully insulated throughout and has an electrical pack which includes lighting, heating and power sockets. And it measures 7m x 3.6m which just happens to be the size the above school were interested in. And as it is built to conform to the definition of a caravan, it can easily be moved or removed at a later date.

So all we had to do was knock out the kitchen area and shower and bingo, the school had the ideal solution to their problem. The building is also clad in natural cedar and has an attractive cedar shingle tile roof which means that it is incredibly low maintenance and will last a long time.

And another huge advantage to the school is that, assuming a base is down with services already running out to site (electricity, water and foul drainage), you can be up and running within a week – as opposed to a traditional on-site build time of 3-4 weeks with the involvement of numerous tradesmen coming and going.

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

 

What Type of Classroom Building Do You Require for Your School?

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We have quite a few phone calls from schools requesting information on a classroom building and before I can even start to give any advice or indication on price, I have found that there are about half a dozen questions I need to ask back before I can do this!

It is quite a big subject matter (and therefore product range) so it is worth just trying to go through the various options in this blog post.

The first question of course is to ascertain what are you wanting to use the classroom building for. At one end of the scale if you like, schools are running out of classroom space and typically need to have a new classroom provision to cater for a class (or maybe two) in an independent building which has enough m2 teaching floor space (in line with Ofsted requirements) and usually also has a couple of WCs, a kitchenette facility, a lobby/cloakroom and a store room. These buildings can either come as a pre-manufactured mobile classroom unit where they are delivered to site on the back of a low loader truck and are then either winched or craned into final position. A pre-prepared base will already be down in this instance as will all the connection of services (water, electricity, foul drainage etc). The advantage of having a mobile classroom is that the time on site is minimal for the school – typically a week – so very little inconvenience for the school staff and children and their working term.

Or if access is a real issue (read problem!), then it is possible to erect these buildings on site. The building is exactly the same as the mobile version but the on-site times are a lot longer as the build programme starts from ground up as it were. Both type of buildings will conform fully to building regulations with the adequate insulation properties in place.

Moving down the scale, a school may want to use their classroom building just for occasional use per day (say a couple of hours) as an outdoor learning resource or maybe as a break-out “nurture” room for special one to one tuition with pupils who have special educational needs. These enclosed outdoor classrooms tend to be below 30m2, are fully enclosed with either solid infill panels and upper glazing panels (and if needs be can be insulated too) but they rarely have in WCs and internal partitioning to form any internal rooms. This is because space is somewhat limited and all the floor space tends to be used for the teaching/learning area. These buildings come in all shapes and sizes but the most popular are rectangular and octagonal.

And then there are the very popular open-sided, gazebo type outdoor classrooms which are used for outdoor classroom learning for short periods every day. Or they can be used as parent waiting shelters and as a shelter from the elements. Again, they are available in many shapes and sizes but certainly in this case, the octagonal version is the most common. The Hideout House Company offer a whole range of outdoor classrooms with some interesting options.

I should really mention that for all of the above, it is possible to add in an eco element to these classroom buildings. This can be done by having living sedum roofs (which attract bio-diversity, absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and have good natural insulating properties), water butt and roof guttering systems (for rainwater harvesting), educational mini wind turbine and solar panels to create renewable energy and even have lights which can be powered by pedal power on special dynamo bikes!

The good news is that we can offer all of the above to your school! And we can also offer advice on funding and leasing options

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email info@hideouthouse.com

enclosed outdoor classroom

Alternative to Temporary Classrooms

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enclosed outdoor classroom

We always receive quite a few enquiries from schools who are looking for some sort of temporary classroom solution. Usually it because they are either having to accommodate more pupils over a short (or as is more often an unknown & indefinite) period of time or because some building work is going on and the children need to be temporarily re-located and re-housed.

A lot of schools therefore go down the route of contacting the various companies who supply educational pre-fab buildings which are delivered to site on the back of a truck and then either craned or winched into position. And due to the nature of their build and construction method, they can of course be removed at a later date if so required. If they ever are as from my experience, they tend to stay there for quite some time!

But even if you are electing to have the above on a temporary basis, you will still need to apply for planning permission, will still have to put some sort of base down and run and connect all the services out to the classroom building and will probably have to apply for building regs as well. And then of course, you have the cost of the rental plus the various siting and delivery costs – and if access isn’t great at the school, you will have to pay extra for a crane to lift the unit onto site. It’s worth doing the maths.

But we have an alternative but it might only suit some schools or requirements as the size could be a limiting factor.  We have a range of temporary classroom buildings which are below 30m2 so you don’t need to apply for buildings regs. We are able to install double glazing and insulation into these buildings and can put down a timber sub-frame base as well. We have a range of access doors including both bi-folds (so you can literally open up one side) or attractive French doors. These classrooms are built on site so in the majority of cases, a tricky access is no longer an issue. Typically they are installed within a week so the disruption to the school is minimal and because they are built in a modular panel format, they can easily be taken down again at a later stage and either sold on or be re-sited somewhere else.

And with prices running from £20 – 30K ex VAT for these type of classroom buildings, it might also make quite a viable financial alternative.

Another factor to bear in mind is that when they are no longer required as a temporary classroom, they could be used for a whole host of alternative applications – nurture rooms, extra staff room, community room, a room to rent out to the local community, music or art studio etc. And if that is the case, we might also be able to help you with grant funding.

For further information on our temporary outdoor classrooms, please call us on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

Mobile Classroom Building at Kington St Michael Primary School

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Mobile classroom

Mobile classroom

It is finally in and operational! Delivered as a pre-manufactured mobile classroom, the school were enjoying their first class in there just 10 days after we delivered the building to site. The teachers and staff (and the children) are absolutely delighted with it and in this cold weather, they are more than warm!

And a quote from the headteacher:

“The children love it. It has a fantastic atmosphere, and is a really nice learning environment. We wanted a building in keeping with the school and our rural surroundings. We also wanted it to be smart, not like an old-fashioned mobile classroom, and to be a permanent fixture that would last.”

Tracy Cornelius, Headteacher,

Kington St Michael CE Primary School, Wiltshire

For further information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on simon@hideouthouse.com or phone 01865 858982

www.hideouthouse.com

WIth solid log walls interior

WIth solid log walls interior

Mobile School Classroom Building at KSM

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P1090016

Yesterday we delivered our new modular/mobile classroom building at Kington St Michael School in Wiltshire. It is an attractive, off-site pre-manufactured classroom building which comes in four sections which are all then bolted together once sited. At this particular school, we had to use a crane to lift each section into place due to the access problems there but all went without a hitch and within the day, we had pretty much completed the siting process.

The school are delighted because of course mobile classrooms of this type of modular build system happens very quickly (compared with a traditional on-site build which for a project such as this would have typically involved a contract period of 6-8 weeks at the school) and therefore does not interfere too much with their average school day. Once all of the services have been connected up and the flooring laid, the school should be using the building and be fully operational by the end of next week.

This particular school classroom building has a classroom area size of 54m2, a kitchenette area, services and storage cupboard, lobby and entrance area and 2 x WCs.

Watch this space for further updates….

For more information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email simon@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

P1090035

Mini Mobile Outdoor Classroom

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We have developed with our partners Cedartree a new mini lodge for the holiday and glamping market but we have already had a few enquiries from schools who are wanting to use this for their outdoor or forest school classroom buildings….or even as an office or reception area for the school.

It measures 5.3m x 3.3m, is pre-manufactured in the factory and comes delivered off the back of a low-loader truck. It is fully insulated too and if needs be it can come with a WC and mini kitchen area. We are also currently researching whether it can be used totally “off-grid”. A decking area is also available.

The great advantage to a school is that it requires minimum on-site time compared with a traditional build and is capable of being moved or removed. But if you needed to offer it as providing accommodation, again no problem because this is what it was actually designed for!

As far as we are aware, there is nothing else on the market like this so we are hoping for great things!

For further information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email: simon@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

Faraway Montana Selection 1

How to Choose Which Type of School Classroom Building to Buy

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Many schools are now facing up to the dilemma of how they are going to resolve the problem of providing extra classroom space. And do you plan for the short term or the long term?

If you opt for the short term solution and look to rent a classroom building (because it is difficult to know if a school classroom bulge might just be a temporary trend plus you may have to take potential restrictive budgets into account), you might want to consider just how cost economical overall this actually will be. The reason being – even if you are putting in a temporary classroom, it will usually still require full planning permission as a building is only deemed to be temporary if it is sited for 28 days or less. In a school scenario, I doubt this will be the case. So you will still incur all of the cost of filing an application to your local planning authority and putting together the required information and drawings. The likelihood too is that you will also still have to apply for full building regs (or your building supplier will usually do this on your behalf but there is still a cost for the application to be made to the local building control officer and all of the structural calculations to be submitted).

And then there is the cost of delivery and siting the unit….and then when you don’t want the building anymore, another further cost to de-commission it and take it away again. And whether you rent it for one day or five years, you will still need to put down the required baseworks/groundworks for the building to sit on plus the connection of services including electricity, foul drainage and water. These elements are “un-rentable” as you cannot simply take them away once the building is no longer required.

But mobile or modular classroom buildings do have obvious advantages over traditional build-on site classroom buildings. And in this instance, a mobile classroom is usually defined as a pre-manufactured unit built on a chassis (which comes in either one or two sections dependent upon overall size) which is delivered directly to site on the back of a low-loader truck. It is already fully kitted out internally with all electrics, plumbing, lighting, heating, partitioning etc so its great advantage to a school is that on-site time is minimal compared to a traditional build. A typical mobile classroom build would be 2 weeks on site (including all groundworks) whereas as a build-on site contract would typically be 8-10 weeks – so a lot more disturbance to the school day or term.

However access can sometimes be an issue for mobile classrooms as it is has to be fairly easy to site the building within the school grounds onto its designated site. If access is a major issue, it is still possible to crane a building in but this obviously adds to the overall cost.

But nowadays mobile classroom buildings are built to the exacting standards of a traditional build and with attractive design and aesthetics in mind – flat roofs, pent roofs or traditional pitch, choices of external cladding including cedar, thermowood or Canexel ( a type of plastic wood which requires very little maintenance). Eco mobile classrooms are becoming increasingly popular too and these type of classrooms include for living sedum roofs, solar and wind power, air source heat pumps, eco friendly basework systems etc

For further information as to how we can advise your school on the best solution as well as financing/funding options, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email simon@hideouthouse.com

or simply visit school classroom buildings

 

L shaped modular classroom with cedar cladding

L shaped modular classroom with cedar cladding

 

The Mobile Classroom Has Landed!

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classroom building with full glazing

classroom building with full glazing

We have just completed the installation of one of our mobile classrooms at Millbrook Primary School in Swindon. This has been over a year in the making but it is now up and running and the school are delighted.

We built the mobile classroom to the head’s specification which includes a 54m2 teaching area, 2 x WCs (one inclusive), a store room, kitchen area and entrance lobby with cloakroom. We also undertook all of the contract works including baseworks, planning, building regs and landscaping.

The school are very pleased with it as they desperately needed some extra classroom space plus we came in on time and on budget as well!

Their testimonial is as per below:

We are absolutely delighted with our new classroom and it has certainly fulfilled all of our expectations. The overall quality of the building is excellent, and dealing with the Hideout House Company has been a pleasure. From our initial conversation to the completion of the project, everything has gone smoothly and I have been consistently impressed by the people and the process. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them and their mobile classrooms to any other school.

Karen Pyman

Head teacher – Millbrook Primary School, Swindon

For further details please contact Simon Fearnehough at the Hideout House company on simon@hideouthouse.com

or please visit www.hideouthouse.com

 

school classroom

school classroom

 

How to Solve the Problem of School Classroom Shortage

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Well I think we all know by now that we have a problem in this country in that there are simply too many children for too few school classroom spaces and it is a problem which isn’t going to go away any time soon. So although our dear politicians are still blaming each other for not doing enough or for not sufficiently identifying this hiatus, we at the Hideout House Company are already ahead of the curve and are coming to the nation’s rescue.

I’ve got to believe that the problem for classroom overcrowding does not always necessitate the need to immediately get your cement mixer out and start building brand new schools because the last time I looked, the public purse was a little bereft of funds. So you need to find another solution and I think that this has got something to do with the following:

1) As no-one seems to know absolutely for sure whether this is just a one-off demographic blip or whether this is indeed more of a medium to long term problem – in which case a school needs to be flexible in its approach and can therefore provide accommodation which mirrors the inevitable ebb and flow of the annual school pupil roster.

2) A new classroom building has got to look aesthetically pleasant and is not like something you would expect to see on a building site.

3) Understandably schools don’t like to have a lot of building work going on during school term time so I can appreciate why Bob the School Builder only comes out to play during school holidays. But what if this could not always be achieved due to one thing and another so you would need minimal on-site building schedules and minimal disruption to the school day.

4) As a school with individual needs, you might have your own ideas as to what you want to have in this new building and how it is designed/laid out but you don’t really want to buy an “off-the-peg, one size fits all” solution. You want to stamp your own identity on it with a building which meets your own requirements.

5) You might want to one day perhaps move it to another area at the school or indeed to another site altogether. Or you might not need it anymore in which case you could sell it to another school…or rent it out to the local community and generate some income.

6) As a school head, I am sure that you will not have the time nor the inclination to deal with all of the complex and timely issues surrounding the provision of a new building – namely planning, sub-contract works, building regs etc and you would love to be able to just come into school one morning and the shiny brand new building is already there

Well if all of the above makes sense and ticks some boxes, then we can help you and the nation’s problem out. We have vast experience of supplying classroom buildings and solutions to schools nationwide and we know how time consuming it can be. I personally would want re-assurance of this claim so we are more than happy for all of our new customers to go and visit our existing customers, see our buildings in the flesh, visit our factory and ask loads of questions.

Have a look at our website pages and then please give us a call.

school classroom buildings

For further information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or mobile 07711 542589 and e-mail simon@hideouthouse.com

ClassroomSt Gregorys & St Patricks 1