IN Brief:
- Bramhall High’s replacement will provide around 116,700 sq ft for 1,350 pupils, with Willmott Dixon delivering the scheme.
- Tilbury Douglas will construct a 28,000 sq ft replacement for Moorfield Primary while temporary accommodation maintains teaching during the works.
- Both projects combine demolition, new low-energy teaching facilities, external works, and complex logistics on occupied education sites.
Stockport Council has approved plans to replace Bramhall High School and Moorfield Primary School, clearing two Department for Education School Rebuilding Programme projects for delivery on occupied education sites.
The applications were approved by Stockport’s planning committee on 13 August in line with officer recommendations. Willmott Dixon Construction is leading the Bramhall High project, while Tilbury Douglas is delivering Moorfield Primary, with both schemes requiring teaching to continue as existing accommodation is replaced.
At Bramhall High, the proposal centres on a new building of around 116,700 sq ft on the existing 36-acre campus off Seal Road. Designed by Sheppard Robson, the replacement school will rise between two and three storeys and retain capacity for 1,350 pupils and 142 full-time staff.
The teaching accommodation includes 25 general classrooms, 10 science laboratories, specialist areas for drama, computing, art and design, an assembly hall, dining facilities, a library, and five classrooms designed specifically for SEND provision. An attached sports hall will contain four courts, an activity studio, and changing facilities, while external works include two multi-use games areas, a 3G football pitch, playing fields, and landscaping.
The construction sequence is constrained by the need to keep the existing school operating. Most current buildings are intended to be demolished only after the replacement has been completed, with the newer maths block retained. That arrangement reduces the dependence on temporary teaching accommodation but places greater pressure on site segregation, construction access, safeguarding, noise, dust, emergency routes, and the movement of pupils around an active campus.
Bramhall High has also been managing reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete within its existing estate. The school temporarily closed in 2023 after RAAC concerns were identified before reopening with mitigation measures and temporary accommodation, giving the rebuilding programme an existing structural-management issue that will remain relevant until the old buildings are taken out of use.
The external works include a 132-space car park, 14 accessible spaces, 13 electric vehicle charging bays, and a bus turning area capable of accommodating five buses. Landscape, drainage, ecology, archaeology, transport, energy, lighting, air quality, and acoustic consultants are involved, reflecting the coordination required beyond the teaching building itself.
Moorfield Primary presents a different delivery sequence. The Hazel Grove project will replace the existing school with approximately 28,000 sq ft of new accommodation for 420 pupils and 28 SEND pupils. Ellis Williams Architects has designed the one- to two-storey building, with Tilbury Douglas working for the Department for Education.
Sections of the existing Moorfield estate will be demolished as the project progresses, requiring temporary modular classrooms and temporary parking to maintain school operations. On the smaller primary-school site, deliveries, emergency access, staff and pupil routes, hoardings, utility work, and temporary teaching accommodation will compete for limited space throughout construction.
The energy strategy includes ground-source heat pumps, with photovoltaic panels planned on an external canopy close to an outdoor learning area. A new substation forms part of the project, while replacement tree planting is intended to compensate for losses during construction.
The combination of electrical infrastructure, ground-source heating, photovoltaics, landscape works, and occupied-site logistics means the project programme has to coordinate much more than the building frame and fit-out. Delays to temporary accommodation, utility work, or external areas can affect the point at which demolition proceeds and therefore the date on which later phases become available.
Academic calendars make those dependencies more rigid. Examination periods, term dates, safeguarding arrangements, and planned school moves limit the ability to recover programme slippage simply by shifting work into another part of the year. Commissioning also has to be complete before pupils transfer, particularly where ventilation, heating, fire alarms, access controls, IT, and specialist teaching equipment form part of the handover.
The two approvals leave the contractors with different versions of the same basic challenge. Bramhall involves replacing a large secondary-school estate affected by RAAC while keeping most existing accommodation in service until the new building is ready. Moorfield requires a more tightly phased primary-school rebuild in which temporary classrooms and demolition form part of the main construction sequence.
Planning approval fixes the broad development parameters, but delivery will now depend on logistics, services, temporary works, and commissioning being developed to the same level of detail as the permanent buildings. Neither school can be treated as an empty construction site, and the programme will have to work around the education operation rather than the other way round.
