Our North London & the East team ran two events at our Cotton End Primary School and Hertswood Academy projects where our people could bring their children, aged between 4-14 years, to work with them for the day.
The events engaged and educated children about the construction industry and provided our people with the opportunity to show their friends and family what they do at work.
Activities included:
- Building a balloon chair
- Site tours
- Biodiversity workshops which involved building bug hotels
- Trade activities such as plumbing, electrical work and painting. Our supply chain were also involved by helping to run some of the trade activities
- Craft activities consisted of construction job role word searches, colouring, hazard awareness posters and creating a model of what they thought someone in a construction role might look like
The children learnt the importance of planning, communication and teamwork throughout all activities. Older children were asked to write their own newspaper article about the day and smaller children gave feedback on post-it-notes.
A note received from 8-year-old Esme Thompson:
“Thank you so much for looking after us all on the site at Hertswood today. I found the site tour very interesting and it has made me want to work in construction. IT WAS BRILLIANT!!! From Esme xx”
Throughout the day we encouraged our people to explain to the children how their role plays a part in the construction process.
A lot of the children said they would be interested in a construction role when they are older. The positive feedback we have received from both the children and the adults is that the day was thoroughly enjoyable and educational.
Gareth Chamberlain our service manager said:
“My boys haven’t stopped talking about it and it has intrigued them so much that on the way home I was asked a million questions about construction and the services within a building.”
