Morgan Sindall Brent SEN school expansions: low‑carbon design notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Morgan Sindall has completed three SEN school expansions in Brent via the SCAPE framework, adding 48 specialist places across Newman Catholic College, Preston Park Primary School and St Margaret Clitherow RC Primary School, with project values of £3.2–£3.4m each. All extensions use a structural insulated panels timber frame with brick façade, offsite manufacture and timber internal walls to cut concrete use, save 38.3 tCO₂e and shorten programmes on live school sites. Additional measures include replacing concrete manholes with plastic units, removing concrete paving, using a bigfoot roof support system, and assessing embodied carbon with the CarboniCa tool.
Technical Brief
- Newman Catholic College received a new two-storey block housing classrooms, sensory, therapy and staff rooms.
- Single-storey SEN extensions at Preston Park and St Margaret Clitherow mirror the classroom–sensory–therapy–staff layout.
- Contract values split as: Newman £3.4m, Preston Park £3.2m, St Margaret Clitherow £3.4m.
- Each school gains capacity for 16 additional SEN pupils, standardising provision across the three sites.
- Newly landscaped external areas include soft landscaping, planting zones and covered outdoor learning/play spaces at all schools.
- Concrete paving slabs were fully removed at St Margaret Clitherow to further cut cementitious materials on site.
- At Preston Park, concrete manholes were replaced with plastic units and a bigfoot roof support system installed.
- Local labour and subcontractors from Brent were prioritised, concentrating project spend and skills within the borough.
Our Take
Across our recent Infrastructure coverage, Morgan Sindall Construction appears repeatedly on UK education projects (e.g. the £13m Kingsbrook School expansion and the £29m Rhosafan Welsh Medium Primary School), signalling that its schools-focused delivery team is now a core engine of the group’s record orderbook reported in February 2026.
The use of CarboniCa on these Brent schemes aligns with Morgan Sindall’s work on net-zero-in-operation schools like Rhosafan, suggesting that carbon accounting tools are becoming standard on relatively modest-value education projects rather than being reserved for flagship builds.
For local authorities such as the London Borough of Brent, the per-school capex levels here sit at the smaller end of the education projects in our database, implying that incremental SEN capacity is being delivered through targeted extensions rather than wholesale campus replacement.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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