Essential maintenance work and upgrades worth £2 million have been carried out at schools across Westmorland & Furness.
The council’s annual budget for school maintenance is £4.3 million and it said that it was anticipated the tight timeframe, while the schools were unoccupied over the summer break, would allow for the completion of work worth just over £1million.
However, it said, once on site, further assessments were carried out at each school and additional priorities were identified. The work was expanded to deliver even more upgrades and safety improvements during the six-week holidays.
Extensive work was carried out across several council-owned schools and covered a range of safety, quality and energy efficiency initiatives as well as internal decoration to upgrade school facilities in time for the start of the autumn term, it said.
Asbestos was found in some schools and removed, water tanks were repiped and renewed and training was also delivered to school staff about building safety and awareness.
Fire systems were either upgraded or renewed to give better detection to warn building users. The layout of some buildings was also reviewed to increase fire safety.
Builders worked to reconfigure the footpath of lower floors, building walls and adding stairwells to create physical barriers and other areas had fire proofing installed to create a safer environment.
The proposals needed to be fully agreed with the schools to ensure the new spaces would be fit for purpose to operate the schools and deliver learning in the best way.
Externally, reconstruction work was carried out on walls and windows to improve the physical integrity of buildings. Roof repairs, and in some cases renewals, took place, as well as new guttering, skylight installations and additional insulation to make buildings more comfortable and reduce running costs through loss of heat.
John Ruskin School in Coniston was one of the schools to benefit. Headteacher Peter Blackburn said: “I’m really pleased with the investment from Westmorland and Furness Council and the resulting improvements in the school. It has provided a much-improved learning environment, which is absolutely brilliant.”
Further work is planned to take place in other areas during the rest of this financial year, to continue to bring improvements to council schools and buildings.
