Actis teams up with modular classroom specialist to help RAAC-affected school

Insulation specialist Actis has teamed up with a specialist in carbon neutral modular buildings which is offering a free classroom to one of the hundreds of schools affected by the RAAC crisis.

The BGR Group, which uses Actis Hybris honeycomb style insulation in all its classrooms as well as its garden buildings, ran a competition to offer a free classroom to one of the schools worst affected following the discovery of Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete in its buildings.

And Actis has offered to supply the insulation element of the project free of charge.

The 60m2 of 140mm Hybris and 70m2 of 90mm Hybris it is donating is enough to insulate a classroom for 30 children.

BGR Group, which supplies its classrooms to numerous educational establishments across England, wanted to play a small part in helping schools get back on their feet after being forced to shut when RAAC was found in their buildings.

Its competition asked schools to outline the problems they were experiencing and how they managed to continue educating their pupils during the closures, with the classroom, including all the labour, going to the school pitching the most passionate bid for assistance. 

BGR Group MD Richard Burns says he hopes the winning school will be able to reduce its reliance on remote learning and minimise the need to bus children elsewhere for their lessons.

“Amidst the chaos of RAAC school closures and widespread disruption up and down the country, the situation does at least provide the education industry a unique opportunity. “This is a shot at redemption in learning from prior mistakes and constructing even better educational facilities fit to inspire the high-skilled workers of the future,” he said.

Actis area sales manager Joe Glaze, who is behind the offer of the free Hybris for the project, said: “When we heard that BGR Group wanted to donate a classroom to one of the many schools affected by the RAAC crisis we were delighted to be able to help. We hope that some of the children whose learning has yet again been disrupted – first by Covid and now by this – will have a slightly easier learning experience this time around.”

The winning school will see the entire project completed within four weeks.

The competition has now closed and BGR is busy selecting the winner. Watch this space to find out who it is!


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