A university has been praised for its quick-thinking response to a blaze that almost destroyed a primary school.

In June last year, Asmall Primary School in Ormskirk suffered a fire which threatened to disrupt the education of children who had only recently returned to school from lockdown.

Within 24 hours, plans were being laid at Edge Hill University to accommodate the pupils and less than a week later, the school was up and running in a new temporary home on campus.

Now, the University’s response has been recognised with the Reaching Higher Award in the Association of University Directors and Estates (AUDE) Awards.

Director of facilities management at Edge Hill University, Adrian McGillion, said: “There’s a well-developed sense of civic responsibility at the university.

"It’s a close-knit community here, many of our own staff had children at the school, and people worked hard from the very next day, rallying round, with an attitude of ‘anything we can do, we will do’.

“There were so many aspects to the work that was needed – identifying buildings that could be used, repurposing them, finding furniture that worked for children, the IT aspect, insurance, safeguarding.

"But there was a real willingness to make it happen. It was a fantastic joint effort between the school, our estates and facilities, IT and faculty of education colleagues who pulled out all the stops to provide them with all the essentials they needed so that the children could carry on their learning.

"The work made a real difference - to us as well as to them."

Lancashire Telegraph:

Pupils and staff were told not to go to school the morning of the fire as it ravaged three classrooms within the building.

Six fire engines attended the blaze at around 7.30pm on Thursday June 17 and remained at the scene for several hours.

Tactical support was provided by the Lancashire aerial support unit, to help crews extinguish the flames.

By 9.30pm firefighters had brought the fire under control and were stripping back in places to check for signs of hidden fire spread.

Speaking on behalf of the judges, AUDE Executive Director Jane White said: “To turn a campus into a school within a week is a massive effort.

"We all know the degree of disruption our children have faced during Covid, and on the day of the fire it must have seemed the very worst luck on top of an already awful period.

"The extent to which the university community set out to fix this really speaks of strong civic pride, but also of the ability to roll sleeves up and practically deliver whatever is necessary, something we’ve seen more than ever from our estates and facilities teams during the pandemic.”

Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Edge Hill University, Steve Igoe, said: “I’m so proud of the University’s fantastic response to the fire at Asmall Primary School.

“Teams pulled together at short notice to do whatever we could to help.

"To have the children on campus, to see that we’d been able to help gave us an immense sense of pride and kept the children together.

"We even held a ‘graduation ceremony’ for them and parents said a taste of university education at a young age could only help their child’s aspirations.

“The AUDE award is a testament to the incredible efforts of everyone involved and such a real achievement after a tough year for everyone working on this project.”