Customer: Haringey Council

Location: Crowland Primary School, North London   

Requirement: More than 400 pupils and 50 staff were evacuated from Crowland Primary School in Tottenham when a fire broke out during a lunch break. The fire destroyed much of the 100-year-old main school building and, for the short term, Haringey Council arranged for the older pupils to be bussed to a local former school.

Parents and governors were keen to keep the pupils together, so the Council set about trying to find a suitable site for temporary school buildings. Gladesmore Community School, which adjoins Crowland School, kindly agreed to give up its Astroturf sports pitch for the purpose. The Council then needed to source high-quality buildings to create a complete interim primary school on the site.

Solution: Having used Portakabin buildings on its education projects for a number of years, Haringey Council was fully aware of the quality of the buildings, and has a preferred supplier agreement with Portakabin. For the Crowland School project, the Portakabin Hire Centre team worked closely with the Council, architect, engineers and quantity surveyors to develop a specially designed school complex to meet the needs of all pupils and staff.

The Council were keen to open the new school by Easter, which gave Portakabin just 11 weeks to get everything in place. However, the Council knew that timely delivery was assured by Portakabin, thanks to its unique Customer Charter. This promises that the company will deliver all buildings on time and on budget, and if it ever fails to meet this commitment, it offers one week’s free hire for every day it is late.*

A spokesperson at Haringey Council said: “We were very keen to keep the building project as simple as possible, so we took advantage of the Portakabin one-stop shop. This started with their Total Solutions team doing all the groundworks and installing electricity substations.”

The Council chose to hire seven Portakabin double classroom buildings, which feature a pair of spacious teaching rooms and a lobby area. A single classroom building and two fully-plumbed Portaloo toilet units were also hired to complete the facilities.

One of the buildings was configured as an administration block, with internal partitions creating a headteacher’s room and other offices. Other buildings were kitted out to create a library, music room and IT suite. The classrooms were fitted with sinks and work surfaces for art activities, and whiteboard projectors were hung from the ceilings.

Portakabin Access provided ramps to the classrooms, and Portakabin Protecta provided full security systems, including fire and intruder alarms, electronic shutters for the IT suite and motion-sensitive outdoor lights. Air-conditioning for the IT suite was fitted by Portakabin AirCare, while Portakabin Datakom provided all the cabling and connections to fully network the site.

“The buildings were actually installed and ready to move into ahead of schedule, which was a remarkable achievement. It was amazing to see how quickly the school took shape,” added the Haringey Council spokesperson. “Parents and teachers are thrilled to bits with the replacement buildings, and the children are really enjoying their new facilities. The problem will be getting them to move out again once the damaged building is repaired!”

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