Making manuals that work

Dagenham Park C of E School

A new school built by Laing O’Rourke in record time using Laing O’Rourke’s model for delivering primary and secondary schools, using standardised building components manufactured and assembled at Europe’s leading construction offsite pre-assembly facility , May 22, 2012

Project: Dagenham Park C of E School
Client: Laing O’Rourke (www.laingorourke.com)

The development of the new Dagenham Park Church of England School was a unique project for both us and Laing O’Rourke, as it was the first project that they had worked on using their new ‘Sustainable Standardised School Solution’ way of working, a system developed in order to quickly build efficient and more cost effective schools.

The new school on School Road in Dagenham, Essex is a large (10,500m2), three-storey, £24m, truly state-of-the-art school with World class facilities designed by architect Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.  Each classroom has been deployed with the latest technologies available to cater for the best learning outcomes for every one of its students.

The ‘Sustainable Standardised School Solution’ system implemented to build the school is done by creating pre-fabricated units from standardised building components off-site, and then assembled on-location.  This model for building can deliver savings of up to 30%, delivered within a very short time-frame of only 18 months and built to UK Government construction strategy specifications.

We were brought into the project in order to undertake all of the documentation for the construction, which included compiling the O&M manual itself, and also the technical authoring of the M&E sections, the BREEAM guide and also the log book.

Chris and Gary built good relationships with all the sub-contractors and the client team, to gather the detailed information on each of the packages of work that made up the project.  These were then converted into an easy to use standard format that is consistent throughout the manual and will make it easy for any future users to access the information they need, quickly, easily and efficiently

At the same time Rob and James worked closely with Crown House Technologies (the Laing O’Rourke in house M&E supplier), to create the technical descriptions of the M&E services.

The result of the project documentation is 1,568 files organised into 113 folders, all which can be viewed by the standard, single unified easy-to-use navigation structure that we employ on every project. 

The total of these documents is a staggering 2GB of data, and that’s excluding all of the sewerage videos, which would considerably add to the size of the project.

The finished project was delivered on a DVD (as it was too large to fit on a CD), supplied in a nicely designed DVD case, with instructions, help guides and more, all of which make it a great product to use, and for the main contractor to present to the client at hand-over.

Our new school has provided our pupils with the best learning environment. Together here at Dagenham Park Church of England School, we strive to make sure each pupil succeeds in all their educational requirements and their personal goals. We work hard, not just as a school, but also as a community to inspire all our pupils to succeed.”
Simon Weaver – Dagenham C of E School Head Teacher

“The new Dagenham Park Church of England School and the Sydney Russell School will provide a 21st Century educational environment - places that will raise young people's motivations and aspirations, and provide fantastic facilities for learners and the wider community. We look forward to continuing working in partnership with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, the schools and the wider community stakeholders.”
Mark Richardson – Laing O’Rourke Southern Managing Director


Below are some images of the completed project:

Dagenham Park C of E School Outside

Dagenham Park C of E School - Laing O'Rourke

Dagenham Park C of E School - Laing O'Rourke

Dagenham Park C of E School - Laing O'Rourke

Dagenham Park C of E School - Laing O'Rourke

Dagenham Park C of E School - Laing O'Rourke

Dagenham Park C of E School - Laing O'Rourke

Dagenham Park C of E School - Laing O'Rourke

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