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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

Hideout House Outdoor Classroom at Primary School

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We have just completed a new outdoor classroom building for a primary school in Rushden, Northamptonshire. Our initial brief on this project was quite an interesting one as the neighbouring school had a glass geodome outdoor classroom installed the previous year and so therefore the school was looking for something a bit different too.

They wanted to be able to cater for a class of thirty children, they wanted it to be something a bit unique and also something the children would want to be in time and time again. It was also very important that the building was enclosed (i.e. not like an open sided gazebo type outdoor classroom) and could therefore provide adequate shade and shelter from the elements. This was because the building could be used all year round as well….and therefore opened up opportunities for the wider local community to be able to use it as well. As it was being sited on a grass area with a gentle slope, we had to find a way of easily being able to site the classroom without too much expense being incurred for any groundworks.

As well as an outdoor learning facility for the school children, the school also intend to use it for nurture groups where smaller groups of children with either behavioural problems or learning difficulties can go for more focused one to one tutoring with the teachers and as a quiet respite area where they can escape from the general hub-bub of the average school day.

Last but not least, it had to be of a good quality and last for a long, long time at a price they could afford within their budget.

We always like a bit of challenge!

We therefore have supplied the school with one of our Hideout House outdoor classrooms which ticks a lot of the boxes in the school’s wish list. It is manufactured out of cedar which is a premium quality wood and which requires very little on-going maintenance and typically lasts a lot longer than traditionally used timbers. It also has an attractive cedar shingle tile roof with a special atrium feature in the top section to allow in lots of natural daylight to pour in from above. It is 5m in diameter with internal benching around each side which means that it can easily cater for a class of 30 children. It has an extra wide door to allow access for any children in wheelchairs and it is built up on a timber sub-frame base raised up on posts. This was done to avoid having to put down any sort of base or required any previous leveling of the designated siting area.

It also has quite a unique feel to it and one that the children immediately warmed to as it looks a little mystical shall we say!

Schools seem nowadays to be struggling for any extra space so the Hideout House company feel that this could be a very good way of resolving this particular problem. On-site times are also minimal compared to traditional builds for alternative kinds of school classroom buildings. This particular job was completed in just three days from start to finish.

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

outdoor classroom

 

 

Mobile School Classroom Building at KSM

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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

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