How modular classroom construction can meet the demand for school places
5 min read | July 2025

As the number of residential developments continue to grow in the UK, demand for school spaces is simultaneously increasing, with councils and schools alike finding it difficult to ensure the infrastructure is in place to meet the education sector’s needs.
The increasing demand for school spaces, and why modular construction can help
Across England, it’s estimated that an additional 54,800 school places are needed on top of an already planned 47,000 new places within the next two years, with some areas needing to deliver double, triple, or even quadruple what they currently plan to provide.
Alongside meeting the demand for more school places, replacing aging and unsafe structures has become a priority, with the UK government currently carrying out major rebuilding and refurbishing projects at 500 schools across England, as part of its School Rebuilding Programme (SRP).
This is where modular construction can be the solution. Building durable modular classrooms can boost capacity for students and provide a comfortable learning environment, within a significantly shorter timescale than traditional construction methods.
Whether a school needs a single lab facility, or an entire school building, modular construction addresses the need for more space quickly, keeping any disruption to a minimum, and ensuring the next generation has somewhere to learn the skills to prepare them for life.
Modular construction can deliver equal, if not superior quality to traditional methods, with the modern methods of construction that are used being championed for waste reduction, durability, and increased productivity when building new infrastructure.
How to fast-track school building programmes with modular construction
A major benefit of modular construction is that it’s a highly organised and streamlined process.
This means for the UK, where a majority of school buildings date back to before 1976, rebuilds can be completed more quickly, helping students get out of uninspiring, cramped classrooms, and into airy modern spaces.
For the school buildings that aren’t in urgent disrepair, however, many students are facing dreary classrooms and cramped corridors, an uninspiring place for the next generation to learn the skills they need for their future.
With educational needs constantly evolving, modular construction offers the flexibility to adapt to policy shifts and changes in requirements from pupils, ensuring that buildings can remain fit-for-purpose throughout their lifecycle.
Modular classrooms and whole school buildings can be tailored to accommodate bespoke features such as wider corridors, integrated ramps, different styles of lighting, and soundproofed classrooms, helping councils in need of more Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) facilities.
For schools lacking in advanced facilities such as IT suites and science laboratories, modular construction can step in too, providing the spaces needed to equip students with the skills to inspire them into future careers.
And the best part? This can all be done over the course of just a few months, minimising disruption to your staff and students, and ensuring you have the room to meet demand when the next Autumn term comes round.
Using modular construction to hit school sustainability goals
Beyond a desire for speedily built classrooms, one of the top priorities for schools and councils now is meeting net-zero and waste reduction targets, starting with the school building itself.
Modular construction can be highly effective in helping schools meet these targets. From the controlled factory environment used, which minimises waste through precision planning of material needs, to a decrease in transport emissions compared to traditional methods, utilising offsite manufacturing helps to reduce the environmental impact of construction.
Many modular buildings are also built with energy efficient technologies in mind, including heat recovery ventilation units, which pre-heat fresh incoming air, and air source heat pumps, which extract heat from outside air and use it to heat a building and its hot water supply.
This also delivers financial benefits to schools, reducing the cost of keeping classroom environments warm and comfortable in cold weather.
The real-world application of using modular construction to aid school expansions
Here at Thurston Group, we’ve worked with multiple schools and councils to help them meet a higher demand for school places.
Including a project with Foxford School and Community Arts Centre in Coventry, where we delivered four additional classroom spaces within a single-storey modular building, accommodating an additional 120 students.
Beyond increasing the school’s capacity, the access to the building is Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant, ensuring the school is able to provide for all pupils and teachers.
We’ve also worked with Saint Cecilia’s Church of England School in London, to deliver a two-storey modular building with three ICT suites, a fully fitted science laboratory, and seven classrooms.
We spent 13 weeks on-site, and the school remained operational throughout this time, ensuring minimal disruption for students and teachers, with our offsite manufacturing process reducing dust and noise too.
As sustainability was a big priority for the school, we equipped each classroom with heat recovery ventilation units to prevent energy waste and implemented photovoltaic cells on the building’s roof to generate electricity, further increasing energy efficiency.

Do you have a high demand for school places in your area, that you’re struggling to meet? Modular construction can help you.
Whether you need a large school expansion, or a singular modular classroom, we’ll work with you to develop a space that fits your needs, meeting SEND requirements, sustainability priorities, and helping you increase your school’s capacity.
Get in touch with our team to learn how you utilise modular construction to revolutionise classrooms and fast-track your school expansion, inspiring the next generation to learn the skills they need for life.
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