Education

Our innovative education-led approach means we ensure that every single aspect of our school provision brings improvements and enables transformational and flexible teaching and learning – to suit every learner. Our input commences from the very earliest stages of building the brief with our clients and educational consultants, to the curriculum based learning that a construction project, its future development and continuing operation can offer.

Interserve offers an unrivalled depth of experience in the innovative provision of school buildings for both new build and refurbishment projects and has an enviable track record in the delivery of both design and build, and PFI types of procurement for primary and secondary mainstream and special schools, including sixth form provision.

Our fully-integrated team includes our facilities management Principal Building Contractor and mechanical and electrical sub-contractor. We have developed world-class leading teams of architects, engineers and ICT partners, operating at the forefront of school design and ICT technology for anytime, anywhere learning. Our schools are robust, energy-efficient and designed to respond to the pressures of climate change, and achieve optimum whole-life value for our clients.

Some of the innovative techniques and components we use are:

• Education-led approach to design and construction
• Providing flexible and easily adaptable teaching and learning spaces in varying sizes to suit individual teaching and learning styles
• Common business interests between constructor, FM provider and mechanical and electrical engineer
• Pre-fabricated components including bathroom pods, concrete reinforcement, cable assemblies and lift shafts
• Sophisticated procurement techniques to ensure delivery on time, on budget and at high quality

Our commitment is to collaborative working, where we can demonstrate continuous improvement, innovation and consistent delivery to time, cost and quality. Our accreditation as an Investor In Excellence is testimony to this approach.

Construction is at the heart of our business and forms the bedrock of our track record in the education sector - a portfolio of projects that encompasses early years, primary, secondary, sixth form, further and higher education facilities.

We work the length and breadth of the country through our regional office network and the scope of our delivery is wide. At any one time, you might find us providing maintenance under a university measured term contract, extending or refurbishing occupied primary schools through one of our frameworks or designing and constructing new flagship facilities within PFI schemes and Building Schools for the Future.

In fact we have designed, built, altered, extended, refurbished and maintained educational buildings large and small, amassing a wealth of experience and forging long-term relationships with clients and supply chain.

We understand the importance of involving all stakeholders in the design and construction process to ensure that finished buildings deliver sustainable solutions with the focus firmly on meeting educational needs and providing 21st century learning environments.

We offer a Total Facilities Management service for ensuring that our clients can be proud of their buildings: security, cleaning, portering, pest control, waste management, grounds maintenance, ICT, caretaking, planned maintenance, third party and community management and even pool life guards. A healthy choice of fresh food is provided through our award winning catering service.

We encourage a ‘one team’ approach to ensure we are working closely with our clients to provide the best quality service. We understand that resources are stretched and health and safety law and fire regulations for schools and colleges are becoming increasingly complex.

Improving the Local Community

The role we play in the operation of a facility can assist further with achieving regeneration aims. We encourage the building to be actively used as a community building, encouraging evening and weekend opening for community activities. When a facility is run efficiently, offering attractive amenities, it draws in people from the local community, helping by becoming a centre for activities and social interaction. To demonstrate commitment to this we have attended Governors and Residents Association meetings to assist with regenerating the local community.

Hadley Learning Community is an example. Our staff run the buildings not only during school hours but also into the evening and weekends, allowing members of the public to benefit from a range of sports facilities, along with health and family advice and other extended services including a library, learning resource centre, nursery, crèche and a 150-seat theatre.

Helping with cost

Firstly during the construction of your building we can assist by influencing the design process ensuring the building is as effective and functional as it can be.

We understand there is a finite resource available to maintain any building and our specialists can help make the most of this budget by helping with both energy management and lifecycle cost.

Our dedicated helpdesk means that assistance is always available. We have our own Estates Division and maintenance engineers to provide day-to-day responsiveness to ensure we are always helping.

What can our clients expect?

Each of the operational sites that we are maintaining has a dedicated local team of maintenance specialists. This co-location ensures the maintenance team is part of the school or leisure centre team and develops an in-depth understanding and expertise of the challenges and opportunities. This facilities services model puts the wellbeing and safety of pupils, staff and the local community at the heart of all we do.

Interserve is also an ‘umbrella’ organisation for CRB checking, which enables us to CRB all our staff. We are constantly striving to develop and shape services to make them better. In every aspect of our work we endeavour to provide services that are responsive, education-centred and flexible.

Buildings to Inspire Learning: Learning Environments for the 21st Century

At the heart of Interserve’s designs for learning environments is the drive to raise standards for learning and levels of educational attainment. The design of the building can be a catalyst for innovative and collaborative teaching approaches that ensure that every student reaches their full potential.

Because our Education Specialists understand not only learning spaces but also ICT and work in schools over the long-term we are able to deliver buildings that enable teachers to teach and learners to learn. Our buildings and services take into consideration every aspect of the ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda and enable the delivery of truly personalised learning.

Buildings at the Heart of the Community

Interserve understands the role new education buildings can make in regenerating whole communities and have experience of how this is delivered in practice. By recognising education buildings as community assets we are able to design and service buildings that maximise the opportunities for community engagement and help deliver life-long learning.

Our experts understand what it is that will attract a community into a building in the first place and also understand how to detail the security systems to enable it to function successfully.

Interserve provides extended services at a number of its operational projects. These services can include, but are not exclusive to, booking, cleaning, porterage and locking and unlocking.

We take into account extended services during the design of new schools as well as ensuring accessible dining for all - including staff, pupils and visitors with limited mobility or in a wheelchair. Furniture and fittings such as rise-and-fall fixed furniture in areas like technology (food and design) and science (where the areas are used for extended use such as community cookery classes to promote regional and healthy eating or adult learning), various heights for reception desking, and switches and handles that are at the appropriate height and easy to use.

At Hadley Learning Community an Extended Services Manager is employed to manage and co-ordinate all aspects of use on the site, be it for the school or the community, including the Learning Resource Centre, Meeting Rooms, the Theatre, Swimming Pool and the internal and external sports facilities.

We are very aware of our place within the local community that we serve. An example:

• At Tapton School, in Sheffield, the staff had just got back to normal following a fire in the kitchen and dining room area due to arson a month previously (during which time all our staff including caretakers, cleaners and catering personnel worked tirelessly to ensure the school could remain open) when they were called upon again to work through the night as the school was used as an evacuation centre during severe local flooding.
• Catering staff provided hot food and drinks for flood victims and our caretakers worked with council disaster team personnel to ensure the homeless residents were looked after. The following morning the caretaking, cleaning and catering staff turned the areas used around to ensure the school could carry on a normal working day and that extended services were not affected.

We incorporate ICT into the design and construction of our schools, colleges and universities and particularly in our PFI, BSF and Environments for Learning (E4L) consortium projects.

We are committed to educationally - and ICT-led design. It is recognised that ICT is a discrete curriculum area and also importantly a tool for teaching and learning. It has a vital role to play in improving educational achievement, facilitating greater access to ICT for both pupils and staff.

We recognise ICT as being critical within the BSF programme and work with our clients' educational and ICT strategies, supporting personalised learning and transforming the quality of learning and teaching so that it will be embedded within the new school.