About the Project

Bishops Waltham Junior School Scola Recladding

The ability to identify, and then exploit, the silver lining to a black cloud is one of the construction manager’s many skills.  

On this project to replace uninsulated and single-glazed curtain walling on a 50-year-old school, Blake Lennan smartly used the school’s Covid-reduced capacity to advance the programme. His acceleration of construction activity in communal areas such as the hall and library was so effective he completed all the internal works before the return to full school attendance.  

And when the black clouds did release their downpours, Blake rapidly found recovery solutions. When glass for the new double-glazed units suffered Brexit-related delays, he had a 20ft shipping container brought to site to receive the glass direct and move forward as fast as possible. When the supplier of the brick slip panels missed its delivery date (ultimately by three months), he came up with a way to temporarily fit the new 180mm-deep insulation to the bare facade so the rest of the works could continue to make progress. 

Blake’s value management was equally adept. He brought succour to a budget that couldn’t satisfy the client’s wish to replace all the school lights with LED devices. He found an acceptable specification that didn’t just respect the lighting budget but shrank it. That allowed more internal improvements to take place than originally planned. 

Blake is now managing a similar envelope replacement scheme on another school for the same client.