Celebrating the unsung Covid heroes at Strode College in Street

Covid-19 has turned our life upside down, and for months most of us were locked down and working from home or furloughed.

Strode College, in Street, was closed to most students and staff. But, for the estates team at the college it has been business as usual.

Looking after the fabric of the buildings for a large college site can't stop, even in times of Covid. There are always jobs that need to be completed and buildings have to be maintained.

In addition, the college had received £1 million in funding from a successful bid from the T-level capital fund to refurbish one of the older college areas, C Block, and the Education and Childcare training areas.

All this building work went ahead this spring and summer adding additional responsibilities to the work of the team.

For Liam Hardy, the estates manager, and his team the spring and summer of 2020 have been the busiest ever. An estates team are often the forgotten heroes.

We all know they are there, somewhere, but we don't really notice when the grass is cut, the buildings maintained, weeds removed and the cleaning is completed to a high standard. It's just what we expect.

The estates team at Strode College worked tirelessly to enhance the college cleaning provision and reworked schedules and duties to make campus Covid secure. They responded quickly to re-active room cleans in the run up to lockdown.

Liam also restructured the estates working practice during lockdown with contingencies to ensure campus could open, be locked and stay clean, hygienic and in use for leadership and keyworker staff as well as contributing to the risk assessments.

The Covid secure campus has been put in place with the estates team who have developed directional systems to allow safer movement around campus.

This has meant that signage had to be developed and put in all areas to give clear messages on where to walk and which routes to take safely for students and staff.

The learning centre, a large space where students study, had to be re-purposed and the theatre bar had to be re-designed as a dining space.

Every room had to be furnished with hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes, no mean task when there are hundreds of classrooms on campus.

In terms of PPE, the estates team had to work with suppliers to cost effectively gather PPE stocks, and develop new products for use around the college.

Liam said: "The estates team worked tirelessly over the spring and summer during the period of lockdown to make sure that the college could open in a Covid secure way in September.

"We also worked with the builders and designers to deliver the enhanced facilities for C Block which we were able to do having received £1 million from the T-level capital fund."

Strode College principal Katy Quinn said: "I am so proud of my estates team and what they have achieved in making the college Covid secure, they are real Strode College Covid heroes."