Topping out celebrated at Alconbury’s new secondary school
A ceremony has been held at the Alconbury Weald Church Academy in Cambridgeshire to commemorate a milestone moment in the project’s development.
The topping out event saw local community leaders join future pupils of the secondary school as well as representatives from Cambridgeshire County Council, the Diocese of Ely Multi-Academy Trust (DEMAT) and Morgan Sindall Construction to mark the completion of a key stage in the school’s construction.
During the ceremony the attendees, which included Huntingdon MP Ben Obese-Jecty, Cllr Peter McDonald, Cllr Ross Martin, Urban&Civic’s Chief Executive Nigel Hugill, and DEMAT’s CEO Adrian Ball, signed the school’s steel beams.
Morgan Sindall’s Cambridgeshire business was appointed by Cambridgeshire County Council to create the new secondary school, which will be run by DEMAT following its completion in spring 2027.
The Alconbury Weald Church Academy is in the growing Alconbury Weald development and sits alongside Prestley Wood Academy SEND School, which was delivered by Morgan Sindall in 2024.
The secondary school will be built as a four form-entry (4FE) facility 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 its projects. To achieve this, the tier one contractor utilised the digital carbon calculation tool CarboniCa to analyse the school and inform its design and construction.
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’s fabric first approach focuses on improving the building's energy efficiency by prioritising its physical envelope. Low carbon energy sources will also be installed, including 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 the nearby 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 closely discussed how best to manage the deliveries, logistics, and building work to minimise any inconvenience.
Gareth Harris, Senior Project Manager at Morgan Sindall Construction, said:
Schools are cornerstones of our communities, and so this topping out ceremony marks a really exciting moment in the growth of the Alconbury Weald development. We’ve collaborated closely with Cambridgeshire County Council on this project and know that once complete Alconbury Weald Church Academy will provide a high-end educational environment for local families and a valuable community hub for the area.”
Cllr Peter McDonald, Chair of Cambridgeshire County Council, said:
One of the council’s key ambitions is to ensure that every child and young person in Cambridgeshire has opportunities to thrive. It’s been extremely exciting today to celebrate together a key milestone in the construction of a new school that will empower young people in this growing community to be the best they can be.
Every signatory of the steel work today, has become part of this new school’s history, at the start of what I expect will be a proud and compelling legacy, providing a high-quality, aspiration-raising education to all who attend.”
Nigel Hugill, Chief Executive of Urban&Civic, Alconbury Weald’s master developer who funded the majority of the school, said:
First and foremost, Urban&Civic stands for outstanding education and social amenities. The opening of the highly rated Ermine Street primary school coincided with welcoming our very first residents. Prestley Wood Academy followed and we now have the new secondary Church Academy, due to be completed in Spring 2027.
The design of the school buildings is really strong. Much thought was also given to location to create a genuine campus for education, learning and sport. Providing a wonderful environment for our students and the wider community to come together for learning, sharing and sport at the very heart of Alconbury Weald."
ENDS