Hartlepool pupils are given a lesson on site safety ahead of the summer holidays
School children were given an on-site lesson in site safety that took place ahead of the summer holidays, in order to raise awareness of the dangers of playing near construction sites.
Local housebuilder David Wilson Homes North East invited Year 2 pupils from Wynyard Church of England Primary School during STEM Week (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), to partake in a safety talk with a site manager at its nearby Highgrove at Wynyard Park development, which is currently under construction.
The housebuilder arranged for a coach to pick the children up from their school and bring them to the development. Senior Site Manager Alec Edwards safely guided the pupils around the safety zones on site, and introduced the youngsters to the dangers of the construction landscape and pointed out common safety signs that promote the ‘safety first’ message. Dressed in high-vis vests which had been donated by the housebuilder earlier in the year, the pupils learnt about the safeguarding rules in place to protect members of the public, and about why children are more at risk of accidents on a construction site.
The pupils were then guided around the show homes with Sales Manager Sammie Laws and provided with a series of activities such as a word search and ‘spot the hazards’, so the pupils were able to demonstrate what they had learned during their talk with Alec.
Sammie Laws, Sales Manager at Highgrove at Wynyard Park said: “There are strict and visible safety guidelines in place in and around the site, and so to ensure that the pupils were educated first hand about the dangers of playing near construction sites, they were guided around the outside of the closed site boundary and kept within the safety zones that were specifically create for their visit. By helping to spread the message amongst pupils, we hope we’re ensuring they will stay safe whilst enjoying the summer holidays.”
Charlotte McCabe, Acting Headteacher at Wynyard Church of England Primary School added: “Construction safety is a really important part of our safeguarding policy as there are several construction sites in the village. If our children are unaware of the dangerous consequences of playing on a construction site, it could lead to unnecessary accidents.
“We’re really grateful to David Wilson Homes for bringing our children out of the classroom to learn from Alec and Sammie and see for themselves a real housing development to learn about the dangers of construction sites.”
