Morgan Sindall Construction hands over new £14.8m Nottinghamshire school

Morgan Sindall Construction has handed over a new £14.8m school in Nottinghamshire, creating vital school places for the local community. 

Millside Spencer Academy is the latest project that has seen Nottinghamshire County Council work in collaboration with Arc Partnership. 

Procured through SCAPE, Arc Partnership designed and cost-managed the project, and oversaw the construction through its delivery partner Morgan Sindall Construction. 

Located on former farmland on Rempstone Road, the new school will be run by The Spencer Academies Trust and is part of the investment in education in East Leake by Nottinghamshire County Council. 

Now that the keys to the school have been handed over, local residents can look forward to 315 primary and 26 nursery places in the heart of the recent David Wilson Homes housing development, The Skylarks.   

During the design and delivery stages, Building Information Modelling (BIM) was utilised by the site team which helped give greater programme certainty, contributing to an on-time handover. 

The project exceeded targets for local spend with subcontractors, with 54% local labour and local spend achieved within a 20-mile radius during delivery. 

A high level of engagement with SMEs was achieved and a 99% SME spend.

The contractor also had ambitious social value targets to deliver benefits to the local area. 

This also included university visits for undergraduate quantity surveyors from Nottingham Trent University and guest lectures provided by Morgan Sindall. 

Within the community, the team collected for local food banks and helped the school with the set-up of its forest school. Ukrainian refugees have also found employment on-site through social enterprise Radiant Cleaners, a real Living Wage employer that provides opportunities to disadvantaged adults. 

Through all this activity, the project earned social value return of 46.5%, ensuring more than £4.5m of the project spend was reinvested within the local area. 

And, in line with Morgan Sindall’s net zero carbon goals, the use of the in-house digital carbon reduction tool CarboniCa supported Arc Partnership to decarbonise the project.  

The school builds on an existing strong relationship between Morgan Sindall and Arc Partnership after the successful joint delivery of Bingham Primary School in August 2022 and Rosecliffe Spencer Academy in May 2021. 

The school is also the fourth school which Morgan Sindall has delivered for The Spencer Academies Trust, following Castleward Spencer Academy, Highfields Spencer Academy and Rosecliffe Spencer Academy. 

Richard Fielding, area director at Morgan Sindall, said: “We are thrilled to hand over Millside Spencer Academy to the community, a project which has not only delivered vital pupil places for the local area, but also inspiring and modern learning environments which is integral to learning and development. 

“Working with Arc Partnership gave us a brilliant product design to deliver, and we hope that through the build itself, and also through social value initiatives which have seen us give back to the local community through education, local spending and carbon reduction, we can all be proud of the outcomes we have achieved.” 

School principal Sophia Thorne added: “We could not be happier with our new building, which has been designed with children at its heart. 

“The specialist teaching spaces, on-site woodland and outdoor areas make it a stunning environment for both staff and children.”