Wates Construction has been shortlisted for two prizes at the East Midlands Celebrating Construction Awards for its work on Poplar Farm Primary School's building.

The firm utilised its own design solution, ADAPT, on the project, allowing the school structure to be easily expanded in the future to accommodate the growing need for primary school places in the Grantham area.

The school currently has 14 classrooms together with a school hall, kitchen, library and toilets that can all be easily extended to accommodate a three-form class entry if required. Specific wishes of the teaching staff, such as additional roof lights to inject more natural light and storage spaces built into teaching walls, were also incorporated into the design. A new grass sports pitch was also built on the site and will be usable straight away come September.


The Poplar Farm project will now compete in the Value and Project of the Year award categories at the awards.

Shortlisted entrants were required to demonstrate evidence of an outstanding building project where the quality exceeded expectation, which was delivered to the highest health and safety standards, and achieved low environmental impacts. The Poplar Farm project saw 98.5% of waste diverted from landfill.

John Carlin, Regional Managing Director, Wates Construction Midlands, said: "The team's ability to execute efficient design has been honed through years of experience working in the education sector. It is this experience and know-how which ensures our developments continue to bring economic benefits to our clients.

"For Poplar Farm, we were able to apply our knowledge of how modern schools operate, current teaching requirements and the way in which learning environments can impact upon academic attainment. As a result, this complex, challenge-rich project was met with confidence and delivered with quality five weeks ahead of programme. We will all have our fingers crossed for awards night!"

The East Midlands Celebrating Construction Awards are open to both public and private sector organisations/projects based in the East Midlands and whose business is construction-related. The winners of the awards will be announced at the East Midlands Celebrating Construction Awards event on 10 May.

(CM/MH)