Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business issue 32 | Page 21

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 21
Children from Vane Road Primary School in
Newton Aycliffe get an exclusive look of steel being
fabricated which will construct their new school,
set to open in autumn 2018 (pictures by Stuart
Boulton).
Children get
glimpse into the
future of their
new school
By Martin Walker
A group of children got a glimpse into the
future when they saw the steel which will build
their new school being fabricated in a factory.
T
he Newton Aycliffe youngsters
even got to sign some of the steel
beams as construction firm SCH
Site Services welcomed them to the
firm’s premises on Aycliffe Business Park.
Main contractor Kier Construction awarded
SCH a deal to fabricate and erect 115 tonnes
of steel for Vane Road Primary School’s new
building on Central Avenue in Aycliffe.
SCH has now completed the six-week
programme as Kier continues work at
the site, adjacent to the school’s existing
building, which is expected to open in
September 2018.
The school project comes as SCH
celebrates a raft of contract wins totalling
more than £2m to end 2017 on a high.
The Aycliffe family-run firm has bagged five
other steel projects including constructing
city centre apartments in a Birmingham
grade II listed building for Torsion, a new
warehouse for Wharton Construction
at Stiller Warehousing and Distribution
in Aycliffe, a student accommodation
development in Coventry for CPUK, a
Science laboratory at Newcastle University
for Kier Construction and the Hylton Castle
Visitors’ Centre in Sunderland for William
Birch & Sons.
SCH managing director Gary Finley said:
“We’re really pleased with the way 2017 has
ended, with contracts won from October
totalling £2.2m and taking our work into
February.
“We have picked up a lot of new clients
recently, Kier Construction
being one of them, and we
are really excited to see
what 2018 brings.”
Finley said it was
particularly pleasing to
welcome local children into
his firm’s factory on a local project.
“We feel really proud to be working on
Vane Road Primary School,” he added. “It’s
really satisfying to see the work we do
benefitting the local community.
“When the children from Vane Road came
to visit SCH they were an absolute pleasure.
They all behaved impeccably and were really
interested to find out how their new school
was going to be built.”
During their visit to SCH, 24 Vane Road
students got to see the process from design
to construction as the firm’s engineers
showed them digital plans of the new
building.
The youngsters, aged between seven and
11, then saw the steel being fabricated on
the shop floor before they all signed parts of
the beams which are already on site ready
for the structure’s next development phase.
The schools’ head teacher Kieran Pavey
said: “It was a fantastic opportunity for the
children to go to a local company and see
how their new s chool is being built.
“The new build is being constructed next
to our existing site, so we’ve been doing lots
of work with the children around the whole
project and the actual fabric of the building,
so they don’t just think of it as a big steel
structure being built.
“It was also goods for our students to
see some of the work hands-on, and that
may well inspire some of them to become
engineers.
“One of the groups was led by a female
engineer, and in what is a male dominated
industry maybe we can inspire some of
our young ladies to consider a career in
engineering, which would be fantastic.”
Formed in 2006, SCH first operated as a
crane hire company with four mobile cranes
and four drivers working for local companies,
but it grew into steelwork and in 2011
recorded a turnover of £325,000.
After moving into new premises in 2012,
annual sales have grown to £4.5m, while
staff numbers have doubled to more than 40
in the last five years.
As well as Kier Construction, SCH
also includes Sir Robert McAlpine, Hall
Construction, B&K Structures, Wates Group,
Interserve, Peikko and Balfour Beatty among
its impressive client list.
For more details about SCH, go to
www.schsiteservices.co.uk or call them
on 01325 327149.