Client: Woodbridge School
Architect: Rees Pryer Architects
Contractor: RG Carter Ipswich
Type of works: supply of a Stannah 8-person Maxilift M passenger lift.

Woodbridge School in Suffolk is a co-educational day school ranked as one of the best schools in the UK. With a reputation for academic excellence, it has invested £5 million in the Belstead Centre, a brand new, state-of-the-art teaching complex dedicated to the study needs of two-hundred sixth form students.

Helping maximise access to its teaching facilities, a Stannah 8-person Maxilift M motor room-less passenger lift has been working hard, looking good and helping to maintain Woodbridge School’s high standards since the complex opened in September 2009.

With five floors to navigate, the centre needed a passenger lift that would open up the teaching facilities to everyone involved, however compromised their mobility. The Maxilift M is big enough to take up to eight people or a wheelchair-user and attendant, a capability that also helped the school’s owners meet the requirements of the DDA.

Stannah is keen to ensure its products reflect the Government-generated green initiatives that are taking firm root throughout the UK. With the hydraulic-drive system in the pit and the controller in any of the landing architraves, this flexible, motor room-less passenger lift saves on space and cost. This makes it the ideal choice for the Belstead Centre which was built to a green blueprint with various eco-friendly features such as solar water-heating and air-to-water heat pumps.

Chris Wilkie of Rees Pryer Architects recognised that the Belstead Centre needed a lift that would withstand daily use by boisterous teenagers and meet the needs of mobility-compromised individuals of all ages. Confident in Stannah’s long-established reputation, Chris had already used Stannah on several projects and knew that they would deliver a first class product and service within the allocated budget.

Finished in satin stainless-steel with a White interior and Blue carpeted floor, the Maxilift M harmonises with a décor based on the school livery colours.

By working with contractor, RG Carter Ipswich, Stannah doubled the ‘personal service meets big company capability’ of two family-owned companies. This leading East Anglian construction company has worked with Stannah installation teams on previous projects and will be working with them again in the near future.

Stephen Cole, Headmaster, commented: "Our new 6th form teaching complex helps us to maintain and develop our reputation for producing well-educated, secure and confident young people who will become the happy and balanced adults of the future. Since the complex opened in September 2009, the Stannah lift has helped students and staff access its outstanding facilities. School life and learning would be very difficult without it!"