SMART Garden Rooms, Offices & Studios, the leading Suffolk manufacturer of quality outdoor buildings has received plaudits from a small rural school for the speed and quality of its work in installing a new building which will be used as a pupil library and community space. 

Rattlesden Church of England Primary Academy, near Stowmarket, had previously housed its library in a temporary building but in the years since that had to be demolished, the school has not had a dedicated quiet study space.

This looked like a long-term dream until the school managed to raised the necessary funding earlier this year. Given the importance of the extra space, not only as a library but as a place to host pre-school and after-school activities to help local working parents and carers, head teacher Helen Ballam was keen to keep things moving as quickly as possible.

This is where SMART came in. Under the guidance of operations director, Paul Sheppard, key members of the team moved quickly to ensure a speedy and hassle-free installation, ensuring minimal disruption to school life in general and lessons in particular.

Paul explained that:

“Although with a national reach, SMART is a Suffolk company with a Suffolk heart. That is why we prioritised getting Rattlesden School’s Key Studio design ready as quickly as possible. We appreciated how much having a quiet space both as a library and for other school and community uses was important to Helen’s team, the parents and the wider village.
“The project was interesting as it involved a fairly tight space running along the boundary of the school grounds – so we had to be absolutely precise about the required measurements as there was not a millimetre’s worth of error allowed.”

Helen Ballam was impressed with the all-round service of SMART: “It has been a fantastic company to work with from start to finish. They guided us through the design process, to project completion with full support and fantastic communication.

“All departments of the company were approachable, helpful and efficient, consequently the children and school community now have a beautiful new space to learn together in.”