John Mowlem & Sons awarded Armstrong Priestley the contract to provide fire sprinkler protection to seven schools in the Leeds area.  This was part of a  £38m design and build contract for the seven schools funded by a major Private Finance Initiative between Leeds City Council and the Education Leeds.

Armstrong Priestley worked closely with John Mowlem from a very early stage in the project and were able to help reduce costs by having an input into the design.  This close relationship also paid off later when the co-ordination of services  between the seven sites became very important.

The schools consist of five primary schools and two secondary schools; the largest with a 1600 pupil capacity.  All the sprinkler installations have been designed in accordance with BS5306 Part 2, Ordinary Hazard Group 1 Classification.

All areas of the buildings have been sprinkler protected with the exception of the staircases where cut off heads were used.  Concealed type sprinkler heads have been installed in all areas where pupils have access.  This type of sprinkler is completely concealed within the ceiling void with only a 80mm circular disc being visible within the plasterboard ceiling or ceiling tile.  In fact when these types of sprinklers are installed people are usually blissfully unaware that they have fire sprinkler protection at all.   This type of head has been used to alleviate any possibility of vandalism and has been successfully used in previous school projects.