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Back to school for Thurston Group

The Thurston Group, based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, is bringing education to the top of its business agenda, with several products, delivered to primary, secondary and tertiary establishments.

Due to the flexible nature of the product base, Thurston is able to deliver low-cost accommodation solutions, from security storage, to fully serviced and functional classrooms, at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional building.

Recent successes include eight new ‘Surefire’ units in six primary schools across Aberdeen. The purpose built storage spaces come with a CAT A-fire-rating, as recommended by insurance companies, as standard. The units have a 30-minute containment time to stop a fire spreading to another building. The ‘Surefire’ unit also comes in offices, toilet blocks and canteens, and are proving very popular on construction sites and schools and other areas that are vulnerable to vandalism.

Feedback from Aberdeenshire Council has been very positive and having the units close to the schools means that valuable teaching space isn’t taken up by storage, and the benefit of the ‘Surefire’ technology gives us an added element of safety.

Thurston was flexible in its approach and the whole project from concept to delivery was handled with the minimum amount of disruption to the schools.

At the other end of the education scale is with the delivery of a new state of the art ‘Surespan’ technical classroom for the George Eliot Community School & Business College, Nuneaton.

The school received business and enterprise status towards the end of 2005 and a radical shake-up of facilities was needed to cope with the new change in circumstances.

At the top of the list was an immediate need for a separate and stand-alone facility for the Connexions service, which advises young people about their options upon leaving school.

Margaret Simmonds, Senior Administration Officer at George Eliot College explains:
“We had a rebuild of part of the school about two and half years ago with a new classroom block and a tiny office. Once we received specialist college status, we had to reclaim back that area to develop the business and enterprise department. This meant we had to find a new place to house our Connexions people.

“It was also important that this space was flexible and not part of the daily school security systems. People need to access the drop-in centre, so having a purpose built area separate to the existing security systems was a much better option.

The new building is serving many purposes however, and is proving to be a vital link for the local community as the local community police are using the facility as well.

Excellent quality, speedy delivery, from the initial decision to the first consultation session took less than four months and it is this kind of flexibility, versatility and prompt service that is encouraging schools and colleges across the UK to invest in the Thurston way.

MD Jonathan Petch explains:
“For schools, colleges and local education authorities, demand often outstrips supply, but as budgets are squeezed, there is a real conflict between the standard and quality of building provision and cost.

The Thurston modular building solution offers high quality accommodation, with great facilities and at a fraction of the cost of a full build. We can be more flexible and we are able to work with our customers to look after issues such as planning.”

“‘Surespan’ gets the thumbs up from the college too,” said Mrs Simmonds, “It’s much better for the students. Connexions make appointments talking to year 10 and 11 students ready for their options and school leavers. This is a really busy time of the year.

“It happened really quickly, as soon as we were given specialist college status last year and became official in September, and by January we had a purpose built building.”

THURSTON BUILDING SYSTEMS LTD
Thurston Group Limited was founded in 1970 under the original name of BTH Tools (Leeds) Ltd, when the main focus of the company was manufacturing and supplying trailers and spares.

In 1981 the company entered into the design, manufacture and marketing of pre-fabricated, anti-vandal and portable steel buildings, specifically for use in the construction industry. Following heavy investment in computerised design and manufacturing technology, the company attained ISO9001 Quality Assurance Accreditation in 1991.

Consistent investment, innovation and product development has allowed the Company to grow and in 1993 Thurston established three distinctive trading operations. Thurston Building Systems now stands at the forefront of steel building manufacturing technology, delivering excellence in product and performance as expected by its customers.

The HQ is based in Wakefield but continued growth and expansion has lead to further development of the Birkenhead operation. Thurston Building Systems now employs a workforce of over 250 people with an ever increasing annual turnover of approximately £25m.

Email: sales@thurstongroup.co.uk