East Midlands Demolition is playing a major role in the Derbyshire arm of the Government's Building Schools for the Future project, with contracts to perform controlled and sustainable demolitions at the sites of the Heritage School in Clowne; the Springwell Community School in Staveley; and the Bolsover School. The school projects, which are an ideal fit with East Midlands Demolition's mission statement, aim to provide an enhanced learning environment for children and adults alike, and to reinstate them as the centres of their respective communities.
East Midlands Demolition works under the motto ‘Clearing the Way for the Future’. The Building Schools for the Future projects are perfectly keyed to the sentiment, with each school set to receive purpose built blocks and classrooms tailored to its educational specialties. Every school in the project is also to be given an expanded ICT learning presence, with a Virtual Learning Environment backing up the ‘real world’ lessons given in the new classrooms.
The Virtual Learning Environment, as the Heritage School's head teacher Don Spencer explains, is a network of computer and online resources that let pupils interact with their work and their teachers both at school and at home:
"Classrooms will have interactive whiteboards and digital technology and we want pupils to have portable ICT equipment that they can use around the school and at home. If a pupil is unwell they would still be able to use the Virtual Learning Environment to do their work from home with the support of a teacher."
The first step in these high tech developments is of course the demolition of the parts of the school sites that are to be replaced with modern buildings. East Midlands Demolition has been centrally involved in all three projects and has continued its practice of recycling concrete and other building materials, for use by the building contractors who will be putting up the new classrooms.
The new schools aim to have a much wider remit than simple nine to five teaching. As well as providing pupils with more flexible and targeted learning, the three schools aim to reclaim their traditional positions as centres of their communities — by offering adult education in the evenings and by hiring themselves out for local functions and events. The Heritage School in Clowne has incorporated a multipurpose main hall into its new design, with retractable seating and catering facilities. The Bolsover School intends to make sure that everyone in the local area is able to benefit from its new resources, and is to hold open forums with residents to discuss its service provision.
There's a strong historical sense of community in all three schools. Each one serves a catchment area of small villages in former coalfield and mining areas of Derbyshire, and the homes and families that send their children to the schools have traditionally had a perception of themselves as unified by geography and circumstance. In recent years, unfortunately, there has been a decline in the unity of these communities as a result of typical national problems with unemployment and anti social behaviour. Staveley, for example, where the Springwell Community School is located, has seen high levels of poor mental health, substance and alcohol abuse in recent years.
The Building Schools for the Future project aims to stop the trend and revitalise communities with better learning opportunities, more inclusive and flexible schools, and a genuine sense that there is a heart to every area. East Midlands Demolition is once again providing the first steps in the right direction, conscientiously clearing the way for these vital institutions to breathe new life into their towns and villages.
