MONTH IN FM
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020 49
FMJ.CO.UK
CENTIEL HELPS PROTECT THE POWER FOR
PUPILS AT CHERRY GARDEN SCHOOL
Cherry Garden school is an OFSTED ‘Outstanding’
certified school for children with Special
Education Needs located in Peckham, in the
London Borough of Southwark. Originally based
in Bermondsey, Cherry Garden school moved to
a brand new £13m facility on Bellenden Road in
January 2019.
The new school building, which was designed for
pupils with a statement for Profound and Multiple
Learning Di iculties (PMLD) and Autistic Spectrum
Disorder (ASD) is now positioned on a larger site.
It is also more centrally located in the borough, to
allow for an increase in capacity to 75 places plus a
10 place nursery and 8 place satellite class.
The new state-of-the-art facilities feature a
trampoline room, hydropool, large library, so
play, sensory room in addition to well-equipped
playground spaces. The new build fits in with
Cherry Garden’s vision of ‘nurturing success’
providing children with the chance to develop their
learning across all developmental areas: cognitive,
communication, social and physical as well as
allowing children to be as independent as possible.
Head Teacher Teresa Neary said: “The children are
already responding well to their new environment.
I was always keen to ensure that the school spaces
allowed for the best possible opportunities for
great learning to take place and alongside that
the teachers had the best opportunities for great
teaching.”
As part of the new build, leading uninterruptable
power
supply (UPS)
manufacturer
CENTIEL, was
appointed by
consultant and
contractor Lorne
Stewart, to install
equipment
to protect the
power to li s
within the
building and
the emergency
fire sprinkler
systems.
Sid Mia, Senior
Engineer at CENTIEL explained. “It was a privilege
to be part of such a worthwhile project. I spent
two weeks on-site installing three 30kVA UPS and
designing the stands for the stand-by battery strings
to support the li s for the school which allow
disabled pupils to access to the upper floors in
addition to the sprinkler systems.
“In the original building design, each UPS was
housed in a tiny room adjacent to each li . The
space was just larger than the UPS but it quickly
became apparent keeping the batteries cool enough
to optimise their productivity and lifespan would be
a challenge in the small space available. Therefore,
extractor fans had to be installed in each room
alongside each UPS.
“I also installed 2 x 60kVA UPS to protect the
power for the emergency sprinkler systems in
the event of a power cut. I also worked with
the on-site electricians, who installed external
maintenance bypasses which allow all the UPS to
be isolated without a break in power protection for
maintenance purposes.
“Once the cabling had been completed and the
UPS were successfully commissioned, I completed a
day of demonstrations and witness testing with the
school’s facilities manager. I showed how each UPS
worked and how to operate it, plus a full switching
procedure, which is a demonstration of what
happens if there is an interruption to power.
“The UPS for each li resides on ‘Eco mode’ so to
be activated, an operator needs to press an override
switch for the li to be used in the event of a power
failure and so this was also demonstrated to ensure
sta can operate the li when necessary.
“As well as installation, CENTIEL provides a
maintenance contract on all UPS units on site,
which includes two preventative maintenance visits
per year. I very am very much looking forward to
visiting Cherry Garden School again to see how
the pupils are benefiting from this innovative new
build.”
https://centiel.co.uk www.cherrygardenschool.co.uk/Our-School
/centiel.co.uk
/Our-School
