Isle of Wight Island Free School

Client: Isle of Wight Island Free School/ Education Funding Agency/ Interserve
Location: Isle of Wight Island Free School
Discipline(s):

In response to the decline in the standard of secondary schools on the Isle of Wight, GL Hearn’s design team worked with the EFA and Interserve to deliver the Island Free School.

The Island Free School on the Isle of Wight was set up in response to the decline in the standard of secondary school education over recent years on the island. It is a small school offering a focused and formal academic curriculum. In close collaboration with the school, Education Funding Agency (EFA) and Interserve, our design team worked to optimise teaching space to the school’s requirements and eliminating wasted space on a tight site.

The design solution provides the school with a more efficient, clearer, simpler and a more elegant solution, at an affordable price and with a delivery date that exceeds the 2017 expectation.

We achieved this by our knowledge and experience of the planning process. Through a series of six weekly engagement meetings and working in a multi-disciplinary BIM environment, we were able to submit a RIBA stage 2 EFA feasibility study, on budget, in six weeks. The EFA review cited the project as the fastest to achieve such and to be on target for budgetary constraints. During this time we engaged proactively with the Town Planning department and statutory consultees, so that as soon as EFA authorised, the planning submission was lodged at week 8. Approval was granted ten weeks later, and, with the ongoing design development and package release to the market, work started on site two weeks later at the end of June 2015.

Due to the extremely fast pace, there was a need for specialist consultants as and when needed at short notice. Our team were able to draw on in-house expertise and adapt to the situation as it evolved, keeping a step ahead of consultation and statutory requirements.