Pupils from Gislingham Church of England Primary School were given an important lesson in site safety when visiting Lovell Homes’ St Mary’s View development on Thornham Road., Gislingham.
Lovell employees showed the Year Two school children around the Gislingham site on an educational tour to encourage health and safety on building sites, and to understand its importance.
Holly Baker, health and safety advisor, and Olly Thompson, senior site manager, both led the visit through the site focusing on the different stages of construction whilst Natasha Baring, field sales manager and Jo Bend, senior sales executive, delivered a tour of the marketing suite and show homes.
Holly Baker and Olly Thompson also visited the school to host an assembly about the importance of health and safety prior to the site visit.
Following the assembly, the pupils at the school will be designing posters which highlight dangers on site. Lovell will then select three of these to display at the front of its St Mary's View development to warn other children about the dangers of a building site.
Miss Baker said: "It was great to be able to highlight the safety implications with the pupils given the site's proximity to the school. The best part of the assembly was going through the different PPE required on site, bravely modelled by one of the pupils.
"The children asked some fantastic questions, from how many dumpers are on site to how long it takes and how expensive is it to build a house. We were extremely impressed at their enthusiasm."
Mr Thompson added: "It's extremely important for us to promote site safety as many of our new developments have schools nearby. I hope that this site visit has urged the children to keep safe on site whilst also experiencing an enjoyable morning outside of the classroom.
Julie Welham, headteacher at Gislingham Church of England Primary School said: "Many of our pupils have been able to see these homes being built week by week. They were delighted to be able to take a closer look at the building site, to learn the site safety rules and find out how houses are built."
"We are keen to provide real life experiences that pupils can relate their learning to. This visit provided a context for their work in English, maths and science. They are currently writing property particulars and are looking forward to having some of their work displayed on site. We're very grateful to Lovell for this opportunity."
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