Temporary Canteen for The Gilberd School in Response to the RAAC Crisis.

After the RAAC problem caused this school to lose their kitchen and dining areas, they needed a fast solution to welcome the students back to school as soon as possible.

Just days before the new term was set to start, this school were told they had to close half their building. Losberger De Boer arrived quickly on site and delivered a full solution in just 4 weeks.

The Challenge?

Speed of delivery – The school needed to minimise disruption to their students as much as possible so the structure needed to be planned and delivered in a very short time frame.

School Location  – Working in a school environment is sensitive as we have to ensure that we do not to disrupt the students and keep the site clean, tidy and safe above all else. 

Our solution?

We created a temporary canteen facility using our Kubo structure. The structure was 15 x 30m with additional containers incorporated onto the sides of the structure to create kitchen facilities. This required a bespoke design to seamlessly attach the containers to the main structure, ensuring the layout was correct for the kitchen staff and the general flow of the canteen.

We worked closely with the kitchen staff to ensure that the layout would work for them so the interior could be fitted out with all the necessary equipment. We also finished it off in the school's brand colours to keep the temporary space in line with the old canteen. 

Client Testimonial: 

The Finance Director, Nicola Elliott, provided the following testimonial about her experience working with us. 

“The RAAC problem has caused us to lose our kitchen and 2/4 of our dining areas. We have 1600 children, and we've literally lost half the building. We've provided a packed lunch for our free school meals students but that's all we've been able to offer and that was done locally at another school and transported across. 

The initial meeting was with the Department for Education, they were giving us many names, lists of local suppliers of marquees, kitchens. Losberger De Boer was mentioned as they had created facilities at Sir Frederick Gilbert School in Harlow. They put a proposal together for us which we then took to the DfE and as they had previous experience with Losberger De Boer they were happy for us to proceed. 

The actual build took less than 2 weeks. We’re really pleased at the speed in which they’ve done it. They've adapted to us, enhanced the building in our school colours, we've talked to them at all times regarding building control and making sure accessibility and safety is a priority. Having a kitchen on site will give us the opportunity to feed all our students, enabling us to provide hot meals and another area for them to sit and eat and socialise as well.

Working with Losberger De Boer has been very easy. They've been talking to us at all times, our staff who are walking past have been welcomed in to have a look at the facilities. They've worked with our kitchen staff who have visited to ensure that the layout works for them, it has been really easy, incredibly professional and a pleasure really.”

Site Manager, Steve, also gave the following testimonial: 

“As the site manager I know all the workings of the school and the link between me and the team from Losberger De Boer has been vital to get the whole build completed. They gave us solutions and not problems. With winter approaching, we would've been very stuck as a school without this building being erected. It's amazing how quick it all went up.

Personally I've had a very positive experience with Losberger De Boer, they've been a really good team to work for, very proactive and they've certainly had our schools need at the forefront all the way through this project.”

If you need a temporary space built quickly and efficiently, reach out to our team and see how we can support you. 

Sales.uk@losbergerdeboer.com

01280 846500