Morgan Sindall Construction has been appointed by Cambridgeshire County Council to create a brand-new secondary school.

The Alconbury Weald Church Academy will be located at the heart of the growing Alconbury Weald development and will sit alongside Prestley Wood Academy SEND School, which was delivered by Morgan Sindall in 2024.

The Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust (DEMAT) will run the school following its completion, which is scheduled for Spring 2027. In this first phase of its construction, the secondary school will be built as a four form-entry (4FE) and cater for 600 pupils, with enlarged core facilities and external space to enable future phases of expansion when required.

A three-storey main teaching block and separate sports block will be constructed alongside three full-sized grass sports pitches, a full-sized 3G pitch, two multi-use games area (MUGA) pitches and an artificial cricket wicket. A comprehensive landscape design will offer students and teachers a variety of spaces for seating, teaching, dining, socialising, and informal play. The Alconbury Weald Church Academy has been designed to aesthetically match the adjacent Prestley Wood Academy.

Morgan Sindall is committed to reducing the operational and embodied carbon levels of the developments it works on. To achieve this, the tier one contractor utilised its digital carbon calculation tool CarboniCa to analyse the project and inform the design and construction processes.

This sustainably informed approach aligns with Cambridgeshire County Council’s net zero aspirations, and resulted in the school’s energy demands and associated CO2 emissions being reduced through the adoption of effective passive design measures. In addition, the project will take a fabric first approach, which focuses on improving the building’s energy efficiency by prioritising its physical envelope, and low carbon energy sources will be installed, such as photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roof.

Morgan Sindall has leveraged its Intelligent Solutions approach to ensure that construction will not affect the teaching and daily life at Prestley Wood Academy. As the project team worked on the academy’s construction, they’ve built a strong relationship with the SEND school’s staff and have closely discussed how best to manage the deliveries, logistics, and building work to minimise any inconvenience.

Jamie Shearman, Area Director for Morgan Sindall Construction in Cambridgeshire, said:

“We’re looking forward to working with Cambridgeshire County Council once more to deliver another high-end educational environment for the growing Alconbury Weald development. Following our successful collaboration on the nearby Prestley Wood Academy, we know our teams have a strong relationship focused on getting the absolute maximum out of the project for the school’s future teachers and pupils as well as the local community.”

Councillor Edna Murphy, Chair of the Children and Young People Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council, said:

“I’m pleased that Morgan Sindall have been appointed to construct the new Alconbury Weald Church Academy. This is an exciting step forward and I look forward to seeing construction get underway.

“In line with our ambitions for ‘Inclusion for All’, we are working to ensure all children and young people in our county have opportunities to thrive – with education provision close to home. The new Alconbury Weald Church Academy, constructed by Morgan Sindall, is set to provide those opportunities to the current and future residents of Alconbury Weald.”