Project Information

What They Said: The Education Funding Agency (EFA) has selected Laing O’Rourke to fund, design, deliver and maintain the seven secondary schools in its Yorkshire batch.

More than 8,100 pupils will benefit from the construction programme, as pupils at each school will be taught in new, purpose-built buildings. The seven schools across Bradford, Kirklees and North Yorkshire have an estimated capital value of c£100m – £150m.

Paul Sheffield, who joined Laing O’Rourke last week as the new Europe Hub Managing Director, said:

“We are extremely pleased to be selected as the EFA’s preferred bidder for the Yorkshire Priority School Building Programme. The Laing O’Rourke Group has extensive experience in designing and delivering innovative, high quality solutions to create future-proofed education environments; we look forward to bringing this expertise to bear through this important investment for the region.”

Laing O’Rourke’s Explore Investments will raise the finance for the schools’ through the government’s PF2 private finance model. Designing the schools in collaboration with architectural and engineering consultants Atkins, Laing O’Rourke will also self-deliver the majority of the construction through its construction and specialist businesses, and will provide maintenance and lifecycle services over a 25 year period.

The secondary schools included in the Yorkshire programme are:

The Samuel Lister Academy, Bradford

Oakbank, Bradford

Carlton Bolling, Bradford

Belle Vue Boys School, Bradford

Whitcliffe Mount, Kirklees

All Saints Catholic College, Kirklees

Harrogate High School, North Yorkshire

The solutions will maximise Laing O’Rourke’s digital engineering capability and offsite Design for Manufacture and Assembly approach to deliver the schools quickly and with minimal disruption to the locality, while also guaranteeing high standards of energy efficiency.