Curious kids in the know

Mon, Mar 20th 2006, 11:00

A curious class of school kids have taken full advantage of an exciting visit to a Redrow housing development to help them gain a better understanding of what they are learning about in the classroom.

The primary school children from Cwmbach Church School in Aberdare were taken on a guided tour of Redrow’s Three Oaks development as part of their science class to learn more about building materials.

Gillian Ford, the school’s headteacher explains: “The children had noticed all the building work going on nearby at Three Oaks and as the study of building materials is on our curriculum we decided that it would make an excellent field trip for the kids.

“Redrow kindly arranged for us to take a tour of the development and as part of their commitment to safety provided everyone with protective clothing. We were shown the building process in various stages from the foundations right up to the building of the roof. The kids then got to see inside a show home as an example of the finished product and all the materials that go into creating a new home.

“This was a terrific chance for the children to see how their community is going to change and grow. They really enjoyed the experience and when they returned to school they told the younger ones all about the safety lessons they had learned and about all the work that goes into building a new home.”

Redrow has also made a big commitment to education by launching the Redrow Learning Web, an on-line resource which includes a teachers’ area to help plan lessons and guide their pupils, meets with National Curriculum requirements and has been accredited by the National Grid for Learning.

The Learning Web is split into two modules – ‘The House Detectives’, aimed at primary school children aged eight to 11, and ‘Plan It … Build It’, which is targeted at secondary school pupils aged 12 – 16 as part of their citizenship studies.

‘The House Detectives’ enables children to compare and contrast their own community with others around the UK, while ‘Plan It … Build It’ challenges pupils to research, plan and ‘build’ a new development taking into account a full range of issues such as housing supply, planning policy, environmental concerns and sustainability.