National property maintenance and refurbishment contractor, Novus Property Solutions, has successfully completed a two-stage refurbishment at an academy in Burton-Upon-Trent.

The de Ferrers Academy is the largest school in Staffordshire, operating from a large split site and catering for more than 2,100 11-18 year-olds. It is a founder member of a multi-academy trust, known as the de Ferrers Trust, and opens its doors to the community through facility hire for a wide range of activities and even offers membership to its Fitness Suite to the public.

Having redecorated the school’s interior on a number of occasions in recent years Novus was the perfect choice for this refurbishment, which saw the old caretaker’s on-site house completely remodelled and converted into a multi-purpose office space for the de Ferrers Trust.

The interior of the bungalow was reconfigured to create three modern office rooms as well as additional communal areas designed to provide meeting rooms and a flexible working environment.

As part of the project, the old domestic building was also adapted to meet current Building Standards, including a redesign of the entrance way. Conifer trees and foliage were removed from the building’s entrance and a dedicated parking space was created specifically for the new offices.

The team from Novus’ Burton office also redecorated the exterior render of the bungalow. While this fell outside the initial scope of the works it badly needed refreshing so the team carried this out as a gesture of goodwill.

Prior to the remodelling works to the old caretaker’s house, the Novus team also removed existing mobile units, which had held temporary classrooms, and installed pre-coated metal security fencing and gates.

Resurfacing works were also carried out to create a new driveway and overflow parking area with Novus using specialist thermoplastic line-marking for the demarcation of bays and pedestrian walkways. This has improved safety for students and staff at the academy by diverting traffic away from the main school building and busy entrance.

Steve Tilling, site manager at de Ferrers Academy said: “We have always found Novus to be a friendly and approachable company and it’s been a pleasure to work with them once again. The team are always willing to help and provide good input throughout, making the whole process much easier.”

Gary Clay, operations manager at Novus Property Solutions added: “We’ve built up a good working relationship with the academy following the redecoration works we’ve carried during the summer holidays over the past five years. This was one of the first major projects we’ve completed for the academy and we were delighted to be able to pass on savings, in order to deliver the works on time and under budget. We look forward to working with the de Ferrers Academy and other schools in the de Ferrers Trust on future projects.”

For more information about Novus Property Solutions please visit https://www.novussolutions.co.uk/sectors/schools-and-academies

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