McAvoy has delivered its latest project – a new school building at West Hill School for Surrey County Council, built using the BIM technology and manufactured offsite to reduce disruption. The scheme links the traditionally-constructed main building and an existing modular classroom block on a highly constrained, fully operational school site. It was ready for occupation on time and after less than eight months on site.

The new building expands the teaching space for children with learning disabilities and it will accommodate West Hill School’s conversion from secondary education provision to a 2FE primary school.

Throughout McAvoy’s construction of the new facilities, both of the existing school buildings remained in use. The offsite solution avoided any disruption to teaching and the children despite the site constraints. 28 steel-framed modules were installed in just four days and McAvoy restricted working times to maintain access and accommodate the children’s arrival at and departure from school.

“We had a very positive experience working with McAvoy on this scheme. Their site management was excellent and they communicated brilliantly with the school which was so important in enabling the teachers to prepare the children. This is vital when carrying out construction works at an SEN school. The finished building is great and was designed according to the special needs nature of the school. Classrooms are light, airy and welcoming,” said Giorgia diSarno, project manager at Surrey County Council.

McAvoy has now completed over 40 education building projects for Surrey County Council, ranging from single classroom buildings to a £5 million nursery, infant and junior school extension at Danetree Primary School near Epsom.

By using the BIM technology, the school was able to see each room and experience the space. It allowed teaching staff to assess how the training centre could work located as a second storey to the new classroom block rather than as a freestanding building which was originally envisaged. In recognition of its industry-leading application of BIM technology for the West Hill School project, McAvoy won the RICS BIM4SME Award for Best Virtual Reality BIM.