Little Nipperz

Maylandsea Community Primary School – Little Nipperz Pre-school, Maylandsea, Essex

The concept for Little Nipperz was the relocation from an old building to a new purpose built facility within the grounds of the Maylandsea Community Primary School to provide enhanced early years learning capability and natural progress from pre-school to primary school for the majority of the children. The project to be 95% grant funded by Essex Early Year Department of the Essex County Council.

Our tender was accepted in May 2010 and planning permission gained.

A JCT design and build contract was issued by Agora Management, Newmarket. Completion set for the end of the summer holidays and this was achieved.

Scope of Services: Electrical connection to main school. Water connection to main school. Connect waste outlet to external mains services in roadway. Install Stand alone fire alarm system. External CCTV system. Haggar internal Hearing Induction Loop. Alarm system under Redcare. All foundation groundworks and all landscaping.

In order to successfully achieve the set objectives, it was necessary to gain the permission of Highways for a new entrance for the proposed pre-school. This permission was granted for the only viable site within the Primary School grounds.

The Primary School stipulated that the building must be in keeping with their own; this was achieved with the modular building being finished externally in Ivory leather effect Plastisol steel with a 26% degree pitched roof fitted to the modular building together with Spanish roof slate. All windows, doors and canopy structures are bronze coloured powder coated aluminium/steel; this finish mirrors the primary school.

The proposed site was difficult to prepare and necessitated the removal of 150 tons of soil in order to achieve a flat and level site. A soil test confirmed the substructure of the ground proving the prevalent conditions associated with coastal areas and therefore strip foundations were laid at 2000mm depth.

Internally: The building is accessed by double doors with 2XG glass.

The lobby area is completely laid to charcoal barrier matting with child height seat benching and coat hooks above. The 2 No: person staff office with seating for parents is located off the lobby and is fitted with an internal window to view the main activity area.

From the lobby, digilocked double doors access the main activity area.

The main area is laid to a mixture of non-slip vinyl and carpet with a wet area adjacent to the kitchen. There are two 3.0m x 3.0m storage cupboards together with Staff/Access toilet to DocM requirement. The three child toilets have yellow/blue coloured cubicles with half height doors and matching vanity unit for the three wash hand basins. Hand dryers have been installed within toilets.

The kitchen has a low level wall with picket gate so that the staff have an unrestricted view of the children at all times. We fitted a ceramic hob with oven below and cooker hood above with extractor fan. We also installed the fridge/freezer and plumbed in a dishwasher and washing machine.

A suspended ceiling was fitted throughout with all walls being wipe down vinyl faced wallboard.

An interactive whiteboard linked to a child friendly computer was installed in an area under our guidance and has proved to be very successful.

A 'quiet area' was created between one storage cupboard and the corner of one gable end module.

Externally: A tar macadam car park was created to accommodate five vehicles for staff with one visitor bay and one disabled person bay which latter is immediately adjacent to a canopied area for the purpose of pram/buggy parking and child bike storage.

A run of chain linked fencing together with established tree screening affords safety and protection on the west side of the site. We erected 1200mm close board fencing around the car park and the south side of the site facing the roadway.

Block paving is laid to three sides of the building and all entrance/play area doors and fire exit door are 'level thresholds'.

Only one 1200mm high wooden gate locked internally gains access to the play area from the entrance pathway. This gate accesses the first smaller grassed area with raised wooden planting beds that the children have planted with vegetables grown from seed this year. One multi-stemmed Silver Birch tree was planted with circular seat. Within this area we suggested that a purpose built storage facility with Kirncroft door be placed so that gardening and play equipment be easily stored. This store was manufactured by us using Plastisol steel finished in a bronze colour.

Picket fencing with locked gate accesses the all weather soft play area with full height polycarbonate (incorporating UV protection) canopy; this canopy covers the full length of the building so that children are able to play in all weathers. The soft play area is enclosed completely by picket fencing with a gate onto the primary school playground where we installed a play mound of our own design with 900mm pipe below, picket fencing sides and covered in astro-turf.

From the soft play area, a final picket gate accesses the larger grassed play area in which we installed a sandpit with paved surround and a miniature oval 'racetrack'

complete with white lining and even a pedestrian crossing! A second storage cabin was installed within this area.

In conclusion we completed the project on time and within budget; the success of the project is best demonstrated by the fact that Little Nipperz had some thirty five 35 children registered with them on 1/9/2010 when the new building opened and in July 2011 had one hundred and nine children on their books for Breakfast Club, morning and afternoon sessions and weekend activities. A real success story for Little Nipperz and Essex Early Years.