Balfour Beatty hands over sustainable Felixstowe Academy

Balfour Beatty has handed over the £18 million state-of-the-art Felixstowe Academy building in Suffolk to its customers the Academy Enterprise Trust and Suffolk County Council.

With a capacity of around 1,800 secondary and sixth form students the academy brings together two previously separate schools, Orwell High School and Deben High School, under the same roof.

The building is an example of leading sustainable design with high levels of natural lighting, natural ventilation and a highly insulated façade designed to minimise energy consumption. The building will generate 10% of its energy requirements using a biomass wood pellet burning boiler to provide heating, and a photovoltaic array to generate additional electricity to the grid. The renewable energy generation is 14KWh/m² - enough to light over 15,000 100w light bulbs for a whole night.

The new 11,000m² campus building includes a science lab, theatre-style main hall with flexible seating, performing arts studio, a new sports hall and multi-use games area. Two extended wings provide general teaching classrooms over three floors.

Andrew Salter, Principal of the Felixstowe Academy, said: “I am really looking forward to welcoming our students into their new Academy building later this week. I very much hope that they will be excited with what they will see and that this new, bright, colourful and truly inspiring space will help them to achieve and to truly 'make their best better'.”

Councillor Lisa Chambers, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for education, skills and young people, said: “Students and staff at Felixstowe Academy are right to be excited by the prospect of moving into this fantastic new building.  These modern facilities - designed around the needs of young people and their all-important education – will create the best possible environment within which teaching and learning can flourish.”

Andy Kinder, Balfour Beatty Construction Director, said: “It has been a pleasure to successfully deliver another new academy for Suffolk, after completing the Ipswich Academy last year. The project team has yet again demonstrated that true collaboration and teamwork pays dividends and the proof is this new state-of-the-art academy for Felixstowe being handed over on time and on budget.”