Building Challenges inspire Kilmacolm Pupils

Inverclyde pupils were given an insight into the construction industry recently, as partners from the team delivering the refurbishment of Kilmacolm Primary School brought the project to life in the classroom.

hub West Scotland, in partnership with Inverclyde Council and CBC, facilitated the event, which saw representatives from the organisations spend a day with pupils, running a series of challenges to show pupils which key skills are  required to work in the industry. The activities included designing and building towers, bridge building and an architectural challenge. The challenges were planned to utilise pupil’s maths, teamwork and communication skills, and highlight how these are necessary for working in the construction industry.

Simone McCredie HT from Kilmacolm Primary school commented
“The Building Challenge Day was a great event, the children were all fully engaged in the challenges. It was fantastic to see the children using their problem solving and team work skills in action. Thank you to the team from Hub West, CBC and Inverclyde Council for making the day as close to ‘real life’ as possible. The children now have a better understanding of all the work that is going on with the refurbishment of their school.”

Lindsey McNaughtan, Community Benefits Manager at hub West Scotland added
“It was fantastic to see the children getting involved in the challenges and learning about the construction industry.  Hub West Scotland is committed to working with education partners to provide work related learning activities, share knowledge and inspire young people to consider career in the construction industry”.

John Callander, Business Development Manager of CBC said:
“Our team were very pleased to support, and participate in, the Building Challenge Day.  It was great to give pupils a real insight into the construction industry and we were very impressed with the skills and enthusiasm demonstrated by everyone throughout the day. CBC strive to support, and contribute to, the communities in which we work and the Building Challenge day was an excellent, and quite unique, way of doing this.”

Inverclyde Council’s Education and Communities Convener, Councillor Terry Loughran, said: “This is a great initiative. As well as delivering a top class school for Kilmacolm as part of our school’s investment programme, young people are getting an insight into the building process. This helps to give them a stake in the school building itself, and they also get to explore the work done by our construction sector.”

The £4.2m refurbishment of the primary school is due to reach completion in October this year. As well as a complete upgrade internally, the existing blaes pitch will be replaced with a new, fully enclosed and floodlit multi use games area, (MUGA) and the playground will be re-lined.

The project is being delivered by Inverclyde Council in partnership with hub West Scotland and CBC.