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Strode College thanks its 'COVID heroes' estates team

Throughout lockdown it was business as usual for the estates team at Strode College.

Looking after the fabric of the buildings for a large college site didn’t stop. There were jobs that need to be completed and buildings that had to be maintained.  In addition, the college received £1m in funding from a successful bid from the T Level capital fund to refurbish one of the older college areas, C Block and the education and childcare training areas.  All this building work went ahead this spring and summer adding additional responsibilities to the work of the team.

For Liam Hardy the Estates Manager and his superb team, the spring and summer 2020 were the busiest ever.

The estates team at Strode College worked tirelessly to enhance the college cleaning provision and reworked schedules and duties to make campus COVID secure.  They responded quickly to re-active room cleans in the run up to lockdown.  Liam also restructured the estates working practice during lockdown with contingencies to ensure campus could open, be locked and stay clean, hygienic and in use for leadership and keyworker staff as well as contributing to the risk assessments.

The COVID secure campus was put in place, including directional systems to allow safer movement around campus.  This meant that signage had to be developed and put in all areas to give clear messages on where to walk and which routes to take safely for students and staff.  The learning centre, a large space where students study, had to be re-purposed and the theatre bar had to be re designed as a dining space.  Every room had to be furnished with hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes, no mean task when there are hundreds of classrooms on campus.  In terms of PPE, estates had to work with suppliers to cost effectively gather PPE stocks, and develop entirely new products for use around the college.

Liam said: ‘The estates team worked tirelessly over the spring and summer during the period of lock down to make sure that the College could open in a Covid Secure way in September.  We also worked with the builders and designers to deliver the enhanced facilities for C Block which we were able to do having received £1m from the T level capital fund’

Katy Quinn, Principal and Chief Executive, added: “I am so proud of my estates team and what they have achieved in making the college COVID Secure, they are real Strode College COVID Heroes.”

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