Platform Lift is Child's Play At St.Thomas' Early Learning Centre

Birmingham Education Service has set a new precedent in the education of pre-school children in the West Midlands with the creation of the St. Thomas' Early Learning Centre, located in central Birmingham.

The Centre is the first of its kind in the city and has been developed as part of a government initiative aimed at providing a rewarding and beneficial learning experience for pre-school children.

Joan Torvell, Head Teacher at the Centre says: "At the moment we are able to take children aged from two to four years. We currently have 30 pre-nursery children and 40 nursery children. However, in the near future we hope to expand our intake even further, by being able to accommodate children from birth up to the age of five."

A key objective of the Centre is to promote parent and community participation in the education of their children. In January this year the Centre moved to newly refurbished premises at a central location in the city. The £1 million refurbishment project was undertaken by Property Maintenance Management, a division of the Economic Development Department at Birmingham City Council.

Ian Pay, Building Surveyor responsible for administering the project says: "The building where the nursery is located was once part of a secondary school. The building required complete modernisation, such as the fitting of new electrical and mechanical services and extensive remodelling to meet the specific operational requirements of the new nursery."

Another key design consideration was to improve access facilities for disabled persons in the building and this was achieved through the installation of a Companion Supreme platform lift from leading supplier Movement Management.

"In order to gain access to the main teaching area from reception" explains Ian Pay, "visitors and pupils have to walk down a flight of five stairs. Obviously this would've posed a problem for those who have walking difficulties, are in wheel chairs or for mums and dads with children in pushchairs. The Companion Supreme platform lift, however, provided us with the ideal solution."

The Companion Supreme is a robust, free stranding, premium quality unit that requires no structural wall. Suitable for internal or external use, the Supreme has an optimum load capacity of 300kg and can travel to a height of 2000mm.

The Supreme installed at the St. Thomas Centre is fitted with a power pack that runs on a normal 240v power supply. The lift also incorporates several safety features such as a battery alarm, and rupture valves which are incorporated at the base of the cylinder so that in the unlikely event of hydraulic pipe failure the descent of the platform is immediately arrested.

"One of the key reasons we specified the Supreme" continues Ian Pay "is that it is a fully enclosed unit, which not only is a safe option from an operational perspective but also provides greater privacy to those who use it."

Another key attraction of the Companion Supreme is that it is very straightforward to install. If a pit is required at all, it only needs to be a very shallow recess, which in turn keeps building work down to a minimum.

"All in all I was very impressed with the lift and the service provided by Movement Management" concludes Ian Pay. "Not only did the engineers ensure that installation of the lift was smooth and trouble free, but they also listened closely to our requirements, provided clear working drawings and were generally extremely co-operative in helping us meet our particular requirements."