Building Work

Building Work Update (September 2018)

We had an extremely busy end to last term as the construction work on our school building reached a critical point. There was a lot of disruption caused in many areas throughout the school, as rooms needed to be cleared and furniture moved to allow the next stages of the work to begin.

 

However, after a lot of hard work term throughout the summer, the building was ready for us to begin the new school term, and although there is still a lot of work going on, we are beginning to see some of the newly constructed areas take shape. Some of the new classrooms, along with the new reception area, staffroom and offices are nearing completion and already look fantastic! We are so excited to see what they look like when they are completed and ready to use!

Building Work Update (July 2018)

The construction work on our new school building has continued to make good progress over the last couple of weeks and there have been further changes to both the work on the playground and at the main entrance. With Mrs Black’s class now moved to one of the new rooms at the main entrance site, the rooms at the playground site are becoming closer to completion, with the new windows now being put in and panels being added to the front of the building, the building is beginning to look very exciting! Stay tuned to our website for any further updates before the end of our Summer term!

Building Work Update (June 2018)

We came back from our half term break this week to find our school looking very different, as our school building development has made amazing progress over the last two weeks. Miss Wall and Miss Kirwan’s class have now moved into their year group open areas as the work continues on their classrooms, while Mrs Black’s class have moved into the first of our brand new rooms next to Mrs Walsh’s office! The new room is so big and looks wonderful, we really can’t wait to see the others when they are finished! The phase of work on this area of the school will make up the new office/reception area, as well as the new staffroom and offices for Mrs Walsh and Miss Sime. We are all so excited to see what it looks like in September when this phase is expected to be complete!

Building Work Update (May 2018)

The construction work on our new school building has made a lot of progress over the last few weeks and the sites both on the playground and at the main entrance have developed a lot. Some classes have now moved to other areas of the school in order for the next stages of the project to be able to begin, with others set to move in the next few weeks. We can’t wait to see how different school looks when we return after half term!

St Oswald’s School Time Capsule Buried!

 

This week, some very lucky children from each year group were joined by our news team, for an extremely exciting morning. When we interviewed Simon Krol (the director of KrolCorlett) about our school redevelopment recently, he presented us with an opportunity that was not to be missed: burying a time capsule under our new school building! We were all eager to be part of such a great idea and wasted no time in designing our capsule and collecting items from every class in our school to be buried inside.

On Tuesday morning, we collected our capsule, gathered everything together ready to be placed inside and headed down to the main entrance to meet the builders. We filled the capsule with all of the amazing things from each class including; class photographs, signed football shirts and PE kits, letters we had written and lots more!

After we had filled the capsule, we handed it over to the builders, who carefully placed on the lid, sealed it tightly closed and took it inside the building site ready to be buried. We all watched in amazement as the capsule, containing all of our special items, was buried under the foundations of what is going to be our new school building!

Overall, we had a brilliant time burying our school time capsule, it was a truly fantastic occasion and great experience for us all. Who knows, one day in the future somebody may dig our capsule up and will find out all about St. Oswald’s Catholic Primary Class of 2018 and all of the wonderful things that we do in our school! We would like to say another massive thank you to Simon and his team at KrolCorlett for giving us another magnificent opportunity. Make sure you stay tuned to our website and twitter feed for further updates on the progress of our building work!

News Team’s Exciting Tour of the Building Work!

On Friday 9th March, the construction company who are working on the development of our school, KrolCorlett, gave several lucky members of our news team the opportunity to go on a guided tour of their construction site. They showed us around the work that is taking place on the site, discussed the work that has been done so far and the next steps of the project, covered safety rules and answered lots of our questions during an exclusive interview!

At the beginning of the afternoon, Simon, the company director, gave us some hard hats and company high visibility jackets to wear, before taking us on an exclusive tour of the first building site on the playground. He showed us the materials being used for the building, including some absolutely huge bars of steel and told us some very important information about what is going to happen at the different stages of the project! We were even able to get some photographs taken by the company’s official photographer as we looked around the site.

After that, we took a short walk and made our way to the second part of the building site, outside the main entrance. Simon showed as a huge safety sign on the fence and told us about the importance of the safety rules that the builders need to follow, especially when working in a school with so many children around the site. We asked him some questions, and along with his site manager Steve, they told us about why they had spray paint, how they were planning to level out the foundations that have been put into place, and what the future plans were for that side of the building.

Once we had completed the tour, we took off our hats and jackets, and headed up to the quiet room, as it was time for our exclusive interview with Simon! We had all prepared some questions and each had the chance to ask him some things about both himself and the work that is taking place on our school, and he provided us with some brilliant answers. We found out about what it takes to become a builder and what the job entails, as well as all of the information about the plans for our school project and the great progress that has already been made so far!

Overall, the whole afternoon was brilliant and extremely informative. We have all been filled with even more excitement and enthusiasm about the development of our school and are eager to see the building work when the project is completed! Simon even said he would give us another tour of the building towards the end of the project, which we already cannot wait for! We would like to say a huge thank you to Simon and his team at KrolCorlett for showing us around the site, and make sure you stay tuned to our website for the exclusive interview and further updates about the development of our school!

Building Work Exclusive Interview!

Our News Team were extremely fortunate last week, as they were given the opportunity of a guided tour of the building work that is currently taking place on our school, by the director of KrolCorlett construction, Simon Krol. Afterwards, they even had the opportunity to sit down for a chat about the project and how it is progressing so far. Here is part one of their exclusive interview!

First of all, we would like to get to know a little more about you and your job. What made you decide that you wanted to become a builder?
Well, my dad was a builder and he started the company in 1965 and when he retired I took the business over, so there has always been a builder in the family.

What qualifications are needed to become a builder?
It depends how far you want to go really. My son is just finishing his GCSEs and is coming to work for me as an apprentice joiner, so he will be working on site for four days a week and going to college one day a week, for the four years that he serves his apprenticeship. He could then go to night school to get further qualifications or get a degree. There are lots of different jobs in the construction industry other than working on site, such as architects, engineers and surveyors so it depends on the type of job that you want to do.

How long have you been a builder for?
A long time! Obviously with my dad being a builder, I spent a lot of time around building sites when I was younger helping him out. When I left school at 16, I went straight into the business so I’ve always been involved in building really.

Have you worked on any other schools or famous buildings?
Yes, we have recently finished working at the National Museum in Liverpool, putting together the new Ancient Egypt exhibition, which was really interesting.

Do you have to work throughout the half terms and summer holidays when nobody is here?
Yes, we do! The best time for us to do some of the messier work is when you’re on your holidays and the school is

In our school, we have recently had an investigation week and the teachers made up a story that the builders had found a time capsule. Have you ever really discovered anything interesting on any sites you have worked at?
Unfortunately, we haven’t uncovered any artefacts or anything like that but we have put some time capsules in on some of our jobs. In one school that we worked at in Preston, we buried a time capsule that the children in the school had put together, that included lots of different things like photographs, football kits and things that they had made. That could be something that we do here for you guys, you’ll have to ask your teachers!

Now, let’s talk a bit more specifically about the job that you are doing on our school. Is it difficult to work in a place where there are so many people in and around the building every day?
Yes, that’s why the site safety sign we looked at outside is so important! Building sites are always quite dangerous, but even more so when working around children, so we have to be extra careful to make sure that there are no accidents and the site is run safely for you all.

Do you have to follow a lot of rules to ensure you are safe on the site?
Yes we do, there are lots of rules and regulations and we have to put the building together in a particular way to make sure it is safe. At various stages of the construction we also have to phone people called Building Control, and they come and check that we are doing a good job and everywhere is safe.

What are the different jobs or roles that the workers have on site?
Steve, who we met outside, is the site manager and he is in charge of the day to day running of the site. Then we have Adam, who is a site foreman, he works with Steve and is like a junior manager, and underneath them we have the joiners and labourers. The joiners do all of the woodwork around the site and the labourers move the materials around the site to where they need to be, and make sure the site stays clean and tidy. At the later stages of the project we will then bring in sub-contractors such as plumbers, electricians, plasterers and decorators, then it’s all finished!

Do you work on a specific part of the building all of the time or do you all have different areas that you work on?
Well, in this job we are working in two main areas; the compound area on the playground and over by the old main entrance, so the guys split up so that we can work on both areas of the building at the same time.

 

Stay tuned for part two of this exclusive interview, which will be up on our school website next week!