Wales

Constructing a new school in Furnace

Furnace Primary School

A project to provide South Wales with a new primary school continues to make good progress.

The Furnace County Primary School project comprises the construction of a brand new school which will replace the existing outdated school site and its associated temporary buildings. The project is being implemented to accommodate the school’s growing capacity of students, allowing the new site to cater for up to 480 pupils.

Once work is complete on the project, the existing school will be used as a storage area for the County Council, with the local community being given the first option to redevelop the site if a viable business plan can be agreed.

Carmarthenshire County Council have been heavily involved in the design from inception and continue to project manage the scheme through to completion. WRW Construction is the main contractor on the new build project.

Construction began on the new school in 2012, with work scheduled to reach completion in January 2015. The work continues to remain as planned with no major problems on the project.

Discussing the replacement school for Furnace County Primary, Carmarthenshire County Council, Paul Roberts, said:

“The new school is a two-form entry school, taking up to Year Six pupils and includes a large hall, dining facilities, internal courtyards and classrooms with their own washroom facilities. Internal courtyards will be fully landscaped for playtime activities.”

Such is the success of the project that the school building is currently on track to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Outstanding’, which is notable as this project marks the first time a primary school in Wales has achieved this standard. The building is also environmentally friendly as it is being fitted with solar panels in order to make it a carbon neutral facility.

Furnace Primary School

Once work is complete on the scheme, the new school is set to transform the lives of pupils with a wide range of new educational facilities, which will also be beneficial to the wider community.

Paul explained:

“Pupils are extremely excited to see the new facilities as they are going to have access to outdoor teaching, there will be allotment areas, suitable dining facilities and as the building is being built within a woodland setting, students will also have access to nature trails.

“A large development is currently being built by Taylor Wimpey adjacent to the school, bringing new homes to the local area. In addition, the school will also include Astroturf facilities which will be used by both students and the community.”

Paul added:

“This is the largest primary school that Carmarthen County Council has undertaken to date so it is great to be involved, and also great to have the involvement of the teachers, pupils and the community at such an early stage in the development. The stakeholders gave their feedback during the decision making stage, so it was nice to get their opinions and put these into the design.”

There are approximately 27,000 young people in education within Carmarthenshire, along with 1,700 teachers and 119 schools. Carmarthenshire County Council, through its Modernising Education Programme, is committed to providing every child in the county with equal access to high quality educational opportunities to enable them to achieve their full potential. With the support from Welsh Government grant funding, more than £150m has been invested in schools and to date has provided one new Secondary building and six new primary buildings, as well as various levels of investment in 34 other establishments.

Furnace Primary School

The investment at Furnace addresses the strategic need of the area by meeting the increasing demand for Welsh Medium pupil places.

For more information on Carmarthenshire County Council, please visit: www.carmarthenshire.gov.uk.

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