Poole Grammar School
Five badminton court size hall with indoor cricket nets, basketball, netball, badminton, volleyball, futsal
and handball provision.
Project Challenges
We have faced a variety of challenges throughout our time developing sports halls. Each project generally presents its own set of complications, sometimes relating to existing structures, surrounding areas or site conditions and in other cases, it’s purely about budget, keeping numerous funding partners happy, or meeting a deadline.
Project Challenges
Funding
Being a state school, there were not many funding agencies prepared to fund the project. The school applied for CIF funding because their existing sports hall was condemned based on its condition and fitness for purpose.
Asbestos
There was a significant amount of asbestos found when an intrusive demolition and refurbishment survey was undertaken. The asbestos was in an unusual location between the ceiling and roof and was of a type that required the most careful removal.
It meant a birdcage scaffold enclosed with polythene over the whole roof with negative pressure ventilation and the existing roof dismantled bit by bit during the very hot summer of 2022. The asbestos caused an abnormal programme impact and financial impact on the project.
Access and Safety
The only access meant driving through the school entrance, across a school playground and down a fire path in the occupied school.
Project Solution
Each unique set of circumstances, is thought about and considered, in depth, by Ball Hall at the outset of the project. We bring all of our previous experience and expertise to the fore and try where possible, to apply a combination of creative and pragmatic thinking to problem solve in each case.
Project Solutions
Funding
We helped the school build the case for the CIF funding based on their need. We produced the floor layouts, a Cost Plan and a risk management strategy to convince the ESFA that the project was robust and financially sound.
Asbestos
We programmed the works carefully so the asbestos removal would take place in the summer holiday of 2022 and to still allow completion of the building ready for the new school year in September 2023. The financial impact of the asbestos discovery meant that we had to adopt a value engineering exercise, which we were able to do successfully without compromising on any of the key requirements of the school.
Access and Safety
We liaised carefully with the school to ascertain the best route for traffic. Setting out vehicle and pupil movements with systems in place including level crossing type arrangement gates that meant no vehicles could cross areas at the same time as pupils. Enforcing a requirement that all vehicles were walked into the site with a banksman and prohibiting any deliveries during the busy school drop off an pick up times.
Ball Hall Added Value
With all the difficulties of a project considered upfront and contingency built in for unforeseen events or conditions, Ball Hall deliver outstanding buildings for sport. A Ball Hall Sports Hall often exceeds expectation and consistently becomes a flag waving celebration for the organisation, with many further benefits that materialise over time.
Ball Hall Added Value
We worked with the school for many years helping them build the case for the new sports hall. We provided information directly for the ESFA and in response to queries from the DfE. Knowing the school did not have the funding for the building in these early days, we carried out a lot of our initial services at risk.
The school hadn’t previously overseen large building projects, so we guided them through the whole process and took away any concern they may otherwise have had by administering the project proactively and diligently.
Our knowledge of health and safety and working in schools helped formulate a plan for the construction works whilst keeping disruption to the school to an absolute minimum.
