Shirebrook Academy

If you have walked across the Northern boundary of the school site in recent months, you will have seen and possibly walked on the new public footpath constructed by Bowmer & Kirkland.

Previously, access from Pear Tree drive to Common lane was via an undefined footpath following a rambling route through brambles and bushes.

The new footpath has created much easier access on a compacted stone path, with the vegetation cut well back to aid movement along the route.

In time the boundary fence for the Academy and Stubbin Wood will be brought closer to the line of the footpath. 

Bowmer & Kirkland have done a great job and we hope the community get some really good use out of this new amenity.

Anyone who has driven down Common Lane or looked up from Shirebrook, will have noticed the fantastic progress that builders Bowmer & Kirkland are making on the the new buildings for the Academy and Stubbin Wood. From a simple steel frame to a ‘real building’ in 6 months. The steel frame is complete and bricklayers have been busy putting up block work and brick walls throughout the building. On our most recent visit, we saw window frames being put in and internal walls marking out the individual rooms in the two schools. The roof is on, and weather proofing continues when the weather allows. It seems to us that the builders carry on despite the poor weather and strong winds we have had recently. When its too windy to work on the roof, work continues ‘indoors’.

Shirebrook Academy Principal, Julie Bloor said “The progress the building has made is impressive. When I toured the site in September it was still difficult to envisage where things would be. However, this time I was able to walk into classroom areas, view the dining space and even stand in what will be my new office! The vision behind the building is really coming together. The fact students will never have to leave the building to get from one currculum area to another will be wonderful. No more getting wet moving from PE to Science! I know the students are going to love it and I think they are as excited as me as we move closer to moving in”.

During our summer holidays, there has been a huge amount of progress on the new Shirebrook Academy/ Stubbin Wood school. When we left in July a small section of steel had been erected, when we returned it was a huge skeleton of steel and we could really see floors and roofs taking shape. Like a giant meccano set (for those who can remember meccano) the building really looks like a school in fact it looks more like an impressive office or even a hotel! Our picture shows the beginings of the central atrium, the ‘heart’ of the new school. It’s impressive now, and blog the builder will keep you up to date on progress in this area and all around the school on future blogs.

It’s been quiet onsite this month, with tons of dirt being moved from one place to another and it seems, back again! but on Monday 27 June, Chris Shaw Project Manager for Bowmer & Kirkland handed over the newly refurbished ‘multi use games area’ near to the school gyms. This area has been out of action for some years, but following the refurbishment, students now have acces to 3 new tennis courts, 2 netball courts and 4 basketball hoops. Our photograph shows Chris handing over to Academy principal Julie Bloor watched by Leigh Gibson and year nine students Kirsty Wilkinson, Leah Attenborough, Ryan Keeton and Callum Larby. Following the handover Chris faced up to the challenge of our future Wimbledon hopefuls but unfortunately failed to make the grade! Better luck next time when B&K follow up with the basketball challenge.

Everyday I must spend 30 minutes (shh don’t tell anyone!!) looking outside my window, I feel that I have my very own life size version of the toy set of diggers you can get, where they would go round the track pick some ball bearings up tip them in to another diggy thing and on and on it goes. Truly fascinating although sometimes I think they could do something a little bit more exciting like ballroom diggy dancing!!!! Seriously now, last week Mr Stennett and I met with

Chris the ‘main man’ on site and his side kick Leigh to discuss how we could use some of their equipment and knowledge to enhance the learning we do in school. We went for a little visit and I went into their little boxes…which I think they would like to call offices. I was very much surprised that they were tidy and well kept, they did have a smell of chips (it was just after lunch) and they did lack little home comforts such as plants and pictures!!! So I thought we might do some of our own pictures of the site and send them over!! Anyway we spent much time talking about the diggy machine and the scoopy machine and how much dirt they could hold, and how big the mountain was. The machine Mr Stennett calls the beast has actually left but we have been assured that new machinery like cranes will be coming on site. So on Monday this week we have gone on to site again and made some little videos, looking at the different types of mathematics they use, they have some very advanced gadgets whereas we just have our brains!!!! Our thoughts are to see if we can measure and calculate heights, distances, weights and coverage of different things as well as they can!!!!

Coming soon Mr Stennett the TV presenter!!!!!

Big thanks to Chris, Leigh and Ben for letting us disrupt their morning!

I just happened to be passing over your school on Friday 13th and noticed your neatly laid out piles of rich red soil and the start of the fencing to segregate the builders from the students (or is it the other way around?)  On close inspection I’m sure I could see a seam of coal peeping out from the earth works but decided not to query it with the Coal Authorities lest they put you on hold whilst they investigate further.  The technology used in these modern earthworks is fascinating, the skill completely removed from the driving of the bull dozer by the use of laser guided dozer blades.  Someone sets up a laser projector at a pre-determined point on the site and the receivers on the dozer blade pick up the beam.   The data is processed and a servo system raises and lowers the blade as the dozer moves forward leaving behind a perfectly level surface on which they can lay concrete or tarmac, good init? (Please note this is now an official scrabble word).
Thank goodness the weather has been dry so far and prevented the road, not to mention the students, being covered in red slurry,  imagine all the teachers washing their cars each night to remove accumulations of splatter from the dirty road!  There has to be an enterprise idea in there somewhere for some KS4 Business Studies Students.
I guess the next step is to lay out the footprint of the new buildings before they import hundreds of steel girders and hey presto, there will be the skeleton of your new school.  Looking forward to passing over your way again and watching the progress of your new school.

The Flying Pensioner

As I look out over the site of the new building today it reminds me very much of what the surface of Mars might look like if the Government were to decide to build an academy there. The earth that has been uncovered has a reddish tinge (iron in the soil?) and the landscape is now full of flat plains, varying size craters and large, medium and small hills. The landscape is covered with small fluorescent orange and yellow creatures known as ‘workmen’ who scuttle around all day moving mounds of earth from one place to another. Tarmac has been laid ready for the new portakabin village and the new site entrance is almost up and running. We have been promised some ‘action’ on Monday when the rest of the temporary buildings are to be delivered.
Job of the day: Standing at the school gate and pointing the lorries in the right direction.
Vehicle of the day: The larger of the two bulldozers. It’s an animal!

Few people driving down Common Lane or looking towards the school will have failed to notice the enormous mound of earth (‘Mount Shirebrook’!) that Bowmer Kirkland (B+K) and their contractors Killingley have moved across the site. This is the first stage in the construction of the new buildings, known as ‘cut and fill’ the excavators are lowering areas of the site that are too high and building up areas that are too low. In addition, a new site entrance is being constructed on Common Lane

– apologies to road users who are delayed by the traffic lights. B+K base camp will soon move from its present position on the school’s old fire evacuation area, to nearer the road where additional site cabins and parking facilities are being built. Security fencing surrounds the site and once the ‘diggers’ have established the correct levels we’re on to foundations!

On Tuesday the first spade was ceremonially dug into the site to mark the beginning of the build which should take two years to complete.  Representatives from Derbyshire County Council, Bowmer Kirkland, Bond Bryan, the Local Education Partnership met with staff and students of Shirebrook Academy and Stubbin Wood School to start the building off.  From these small beginnings we anticipate some big changes to the site over the next few weeks!