04 July 2016
‘Phenomenal’ Four-day Response from Portakabin Provides Classrooms for 480 Edinburgh Children
When the Royal High School of Edinburgh had to be closed for urgent remedial building works, Portakabin, the UK's leading modular building specialist, responded with 16 classrooms to enable 480 children to resume their studies - and in just four days from the initial enquiry.
The local Portakabin Hire Centre team in Edinburgh provided the exceptionally fast response - sourcing 16 buildings for high quality classrooms, transporting each building to the school, and putting in place external power connections to generators, emergency lighting, fire alarms and extinguishers, and access steps and ramps.
The Portakabin building solution allowed the school to re-open and most importantly, with all children at Royal High School on their original site. This avoided the need for any displacement which would have been very disruptive to the running of the school and the children's education.
Andrew Kerr, Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council said, "I am delighted that Portakabin was able to meet our requirements at such short notice, particularly given the scale of the project - getting 16 buildings ready for the pupils in just four days is no mean feat!"
"It was great to see such collaboration, commitment and focus on the urgency of the project to ensure the school could re-open so quickly. We have received only positive feedback from the school about the quality of the classrooms and could not have asked for a better service."
Pauline Walker, Head Teacher at the Royal High School said, "We cannot believe what was achieved in the timescale. The experience has completely changed our perception of interim modular buildings. The quality of the classrooms far exceeded our expectations and the teaching facilities are completely different to the temporary accommodation we had to endure as children."
"The site team could not have done more to get our school up and running again. Portakabin was on site within half an hour of the initial call and their performance was exceptional. We also have the impression that their team really enjoys a challenge!"
She added, "Being able to have all the children in one location has made a huge difference to the running of the school. This is a really good solution which has delivered robust, comfortable and secure classrooms. We would definitely recommend the approach to other schools in a similar situation."
Portakabin has delivered a further project for the City of Edinburgh Council while remediation works and quality checks are completed at Gracemount High School. Eight buildings were installed over a weekend to provide welfare and classroom facilities for 260 children.
In the event of any urgent situation, such as fire, power failure, flooding or the discovery of asbestos, Portakabin can assist with:
- The rapid delivery of buildings to an organisation's site from its national hire fleet. This allows core operations to be up and running again very quickly.
- A bespoke, longer-term accommodation solution developed to an organisation's exact specifications if the original building has been so severely damaged that it will be out of use for a number of months.
- Contingency planning - the preparation of up-to-date disaster recovery plans, which can cut an emergency response programme by up to two weeks.
For further information about interim modular buildings for urgent applications, visit www.portakabin.co.uk, email information@portakabin.co.uk or call 0845 401 0010.
Editor's Notes
1. Interim building solutions for schools from Portakabin provide:
- Spacious and light classrooms
- Exceptionally fast programme times
- A wide variety of aesthetic, layout and fitting out options to reduce procurement time and improve the learning environment
- A comprehensive range of architectural options and amenities such as vinyl wraps, free-standing canopies and shelters, covered walkways, outdoor classrooms, cycle storage, street furniture and play equipment
- Enhanced quality and a robust steel-framed construction suitable for the most demanding school situation
- Buildings delivered with much less disruption to teaching.
2. Portakabin is a registered trademark which must only be used to refer to modular buildings that are known to have been manufactured by the Portakabin Group. Please note, Portakabin is not a generic term.
3. The Portakabin Group is part of the Shepherd Group.
