The Compass School

Project Details

• Reds10 delivered a turnkey modular solution for the 2,100 m2 all through school in the London Borough of Havering, as part of the Department for Education (DfE)’s £3bn ‘Off-site Schools Framework’.
• The building will accommodate 60 local pupils with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) and Communication & Interaction needs.
• 87% completed off-site (2% higher than our commitment on the framework).

The Compass School is a 2,100 m2 school catering for primary and secondary school students with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) and Communication & Interaction needs in the London Borough of Havering.

The all through school, which is operated by Unity Schools Partnership, will accommodate 60 local pupils, providing much needed SEMH spaces for the borough.

Reds10 was appointed by the Department for Education (DfE) as principal contractor to design and build the school, which is part of the DfE’s ‘Off-site Schools Framework’. The Framework was established in 2020, as part of the Government’s drive for greater adoption of MMC to modernise the industry and increase efficiencies, cost savings and innovation within capital building programmes.

The two-storey building includes:

• appropriate classrooms,
• dining hall,
• multi-use hall,
• changing rooms,
• therapy, group and calm rooms,
• specialist teaching spaces, including a food/life skills room, food technology room, art and science classrooms,
• external play areas,
• car parking and dedicated drop off areas

The school sports facilities will also be made available for use by the local community outside of school hours.

The external materials consist of a natural timber cladding combined with a complementing palette of colour cladding, windows and entrance canopy, to both respond to the local context and create a distinct identity for the school that is open and welcoming. The colour scheme internally reflects the external materials and utilises calming colours that that are autism and SEMH friendly, creating feelings of comfort, warmth and joy. All the materials are hard-wearing and will weather well, providing the school with a high quality yet low maintenance building.

Sustainability is embedded throughout with air source heat pumps within the building and PV panels on the roof, in line with the energy strategy for the school. Compass School utilises a biosolar roof, which combines the technology of solar energy and green roofs, providing not only clean energy and supporting local biodiversity, but also insulation to a building helping to keep it warm in winter and cooler in the summer, reducing energy costs.

Like all Reds10 buildings, the school includes SMART building technology, which allows Reds10 and the school to analyse energy usage and production, generating accurate data to ensure that the building is operated at maximum energy efficiency going forward.

Reds10 employed Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) with units arriving to site 87% complete, from their East Yorkshire factory. MMC directly benefits the delivery of school construction projects, through reduced embodied carbon, quicker delivery programmes and less trades on site, which minimises disruption.