St David's Primary School

Like many towns and villages in Gloucestershire, Moreton-in-Marsh was severely flooded in the summer of 2007. The village’s primary school was inundated with floodwater on the first day of the summer holidays, devastating every building on site. The contaminated water caused £2m-worth of damage, and it soon became apparent that the school buildings would not be habitable by the start of the autumn term. Complete interim facilities therefore needed to be put in place before the 280 pupils returned in September. 

Just days after the flood, the architect appointed by the school had brought in Portakabin, an approved supplier of the LEA’s buildings insurer, Zurich Municipal. Portakabin took part in full consultations with the school, the LEA and governors to determine their precise requirements. Once the plans were agreed, Portakabin only had the remaining four weeks of the school holiday to get all buildings in place and ready for use.

Portakabin supplied 14 Titan buildings – the largest relocatable buildings in Europe – to provide 12 spacious classrooms, an office block and a staff room. A large three-module Duplex building was provided for the school hall. Three Portaloo Junior toilet buildings – specially designed for primary-school children – were supplied, as well as a Portaloo toilet block for staff and a Portastor storage unit.

Portakabin provided a complete one-stop-shop solution for the school, from managing the project to supplying security systems, access ramps, steps, and all cabling and service connections. Such was the devastation caused to the area by the floods that Portakabin even supplied a powerful generator to provide electricity for the new buildings. The school also purchased new furniture and electronic whiteboards from Portakabin, which it will take into its rebuilt school once it is completed.

Getting the buildings on to the school site proved a major challenge. Access to the school could only be gained along narrow lanes through the centre of the village. However, Portakabin made all the arrangement to ensure that deliveries ran to schedule. The company liaised with the police to implement the necessary traffic-management measures on delivery days, and made arrangements with the local authority for some trees to be trimmed to create clear access to the site.

Thanks to this careful planning and management by Portakabin, all buildings were installed on schedule, in line with the company’s unique Customer Charter promise to deliver all projects on time and on budget. Portakabin even promises that if it ever fails to meet this commitment it will provide a week’s free hire for every day it is late.*

St David’s Primary School Headteacher, Bob Forster says: “Portakabin provided an outstanding service throughout. Just getting the buildings on site was a complex operation, which Portakabin managed expertly. Even after the buildings were in use, Portakabin was very efficient at attending to any additional requirements we identified.

“The new buildings provide very attractive and serviceable classroom accommodation. They fulfil all of our requirements and the staff and children have taken to them very well. Portakabin proved to be a superb company, very good at living up to all its promises and delivering high quality in everything it does.”

* Terms and Conditions apply. A copy is available on request.