Due to rising enrolments, SPARK Schools needed to physically expand quickly and efficiently, however, traditional brick-and-mortar construction was not feasible due to the high costs and lengthy building timelines. As a result, the school group partnered with Waco Modular to deliver modular classroom units that aligned with their requirements for cost, time, quality, and scalability while also providing the flexibility to continue expanding as required.
Client Background
Founded in 2012, SPARK Schools emerged as a response to the challenges in South Africa’s education system. The school group was positioned to disrupt the crisis in local education, with the founders committed to developing an innovative model that would make high-quality education accessible and affordable. Their goal was to address the challenges in the education system through a fresh approach that prioritised both excellence and affordability. Today, SPARK Schools educates more than 16 000 scholars at 26 schools across Gauteng and the Western Cape. The schools offer a unique individualised educational experience by focusing on each scholar’s needs in the classroom and incorporating online learning.
The Challenge
As early as 2018, SPARK Schools identified an urgent need to expand its classroom capacity across many of its campuses.
Each classroom needs to accommodate approximately 35 scholars at different times throughout the day, requiring an average of 1.5 square meters per scholar. This translates to a typical classroom size of around 55 square meters.
Due to rising enrolments, SPARK Schools needed to expand fairly quickly. The school employs an innovative transition model, where scholars move between spaces throughout the day, with no specific classroom being assigned to a particular teacher or class. This dynamic approach requires adequate classroom capacity to enable scholars to move around at any point during the day. However, the high costs and extended timelines associated with traditional brick-and-mortar construction made it impractical for SPARK Schools’ urgent expansion requirements.
The Solution
In seeking a solution to the problem, SPARK Schools prioritised three key criteria in selecting a service provider. The quality of the product/service they provide; the cost-effectiveness and competitive pricing; and a strong long-term relationship and partnership with the service provider, which is sometimes more important than quality and price. Waco Modular met all of these requirements and was appointed to carry out the expansion. As a leading provider in modular construction services with extensive expertise in industry-specific requirements, Waco Modular successfully delivered on SPARK Schools’ requirements for quality, cost, and timely execution.
The result
Modular construction has proven to be an ideal solution for educational institutions like SPARK Schools, for various reasons. Its flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency offer significant advantages, particularly for rapidly growing educational facilities like SPARK Schools.
The modular units allow SPARK Schools to expand quickly, starting with a smaller footprint instead of committing to large-scale brick-and-mortar buildings upfront, while also providing flexibility to adapt to changing enrolment needs. This means that SPARK Schools can start with just a few grades and then add on classrooms in subsequent years as the student population grows, without having unused capacity in large permanent buildings. The modular design of the units allows SPARK Schools to seamlesslyadd more classrooms as needed, providing the flexibility to scale operations in line with enrolment growth.
This approach allows the school group to manage costs efficiently, keeping fixed expenses variable and only incurring additional costs when new classroom space is required.
Since the formation of the partnership, Waco Modular has supplied SPARK Schools with 148modular units, each measuring 3m x 6m – amounting to about 70 classrooms of various configurations. These units have been rolled out across multiple campuses, including Kempton Park, Centurion, Turffontein, Theresa Park, Rosslyn Hub, Soweto and Witpoortjie.
Quotes
“The modular unit system enables us to expand rapidly, providing us with a limited footprint as a start. This means we do not need to have massive brick and mortar buildings with unused capacity during our early phases of enrolment.”
- Bradley Wentzel, CFO at SPARK Schools
“Alongside the cost, time and flexibility factors, the construction does not impact the day-to-day operations of the campuses, and that’s what makes modular construction such a good fit for schools that cannot afford disruptions while embarking in expansion projects.”
