Kier Sheffield celebrates with Stocksbridge Nursery Infant School

Published by Rachael Hunter for Kier Services in Communities and also in Education, Health, Housing

Kier Sheffield LLP and Stocksbridge Nursery Infant School celebrated the completion of the school’s expansion project with an afternoon of unveilings and prizes.

The event, which kicked off with a ribbon cutting ceremony by a pupil, teacher, parent and governor, was held to reveal the newly-built extension to two office spaces and a brand new secure access key fob system to keep the school safe.  The new system ensures that everyone requiring entry into the building will be verified before being allowed access.

The ribbon cutting was followed by a prize-giving ceremony to recognise pupils who walked to school the most during a two-month initiative launched by Kier, which donated new cycles and helmets to the winners from each year group. The initiative was a great success and the school saved one and a half tons of carbon dioxide emissions within the two-month period, which is the equivalent energy needed to boil 6,500 kettles.

Head teacher, Jane Townsend said “We are delighted with our new office spaces.  We felt confident from the start, working with Kevin Taylor and Nigel Stirland that it would be a success.  Kier spent time in the planning stages, making sure we got the building we needed. The working relationship between Kier and our school was positive throughout with staff, pupils and parents.  Our children learnt all about construction whilst the build was taking place and the team took time to talk to the children about how a building is made, there were models of buildings all over school!

The extension exceeds our expectations; it’s a bright, welcoming and modern space which is secure for staff, parents and most importantly our children.  Kier got it right– they worked in partnership with us and great attention was paid to detail.  We enjoyed working with them – they became part of our school team for the duration of the build”

Kier’s £135,000 expansion project at the school began in July last year and was completed in November - on time and without setbacks - all due to the positive attitude that the school had throughout the whole period of construction.

The teachers and pupils were involved in every stage of the build from selecting the type of brick right through to the carpet.

Kier regional managing director for maintenance, Simon Bullen, said: “Our projects team at Kier Sheffield carries out a range of schemes from minor works to multi-million pound new builds. No matter how big or small the project, Kier strives to ensure the highest quality, value for money and personal service and, most importantly, supports the school, pupils and staff as well as the local community throughout the whole process.  

We were impressed by the positive response of our ‘walk to school’ initiative and feel we have left a lasting impression on the students and teachers at Stocksbridge Nursery Infant School. We hope the ceremony will have special significance to every attendee of the school and they should feel proud that they all played a part in their school’s expansion build project.”