The Bishop Wheeler Catholic Academy Trust is a collective of ten schools situated in the North-West Leeds and North Yorkshire regions. St Mary’s in Menston is currently one of the only secondary schools managed by the trust, and a popular choice with families living in the area thanks to being rated by Ofsted as ‘Outstanding’. With 1300 pupils and staff frequenting the school between Monday and Friday, this makes for a busy environment across term-times.
The school comprises of multiple buildings across a large site some xxxxx in size, including a facility specifically for pupils wishing to continue their education into the sixth-form. With the numbers post-GCSE increasing, it was felt some refurbishments were necessary to improve the sixth-form facility; their Common Room, Study Room, and four toilet blocks. The Trust also recognised the need to improve the school’s kitchen, by creating a new serving area that would better accommodate the footfall.
The project took place through the summer while the student body was on its annual break and the staff numbers onsite were significantly reduced. The works involved a complete stripping of the existing finishes, fixtures and fittings, taking each area back to the original structure before proceeding with the replacement fit out. including new furniture and catering equipment.
The project brought several challenges and unforeseen works however, the site team managed to successfully overcome these and hand the school over on time, on budget and more importantly, before the students returned in September.
Head Teacher, Darren Beardsley, said:
“We were delighted with the quality of the work provided by Jupiter Construction. The work involved a number of projects in a challenging time period and we found them helpful throughout the planning stage, delivery stage and after the completion of the work. Communication was always clear, with regular updates on the progress being made.”
