Scholarly outing in Scraptoft

School children from Fernvale Primary School were recently treated to a tour around David Wilson East Midlands Scholars Grange development in Scraptoft as part of an educational day in the local community.

Around 90 children between the ages of four and seven were shown around the development, with the aim of teaching them about the different types of houses, the importance of health and safety and to demonstrate the process of building a new home from start to finish.

David Wilson's Contracts Manager Ivan Towson and Site Managers Tony Smith and Gary Tebbatt offered to lend their expertise to the day and each took three groups of ten around the different areas of the development.

The children were shown around each stage of the building process, from an un-plastered shell of a home, right through to the decorated showhome, and got to see for themselves first hand the workmanship involved in building a new home.

They were also shown the different types of houses on offer which included an apartment, a terraced house, a semi-detached house and a detached house and even got to lay a paving block each when they visited the workmen laying the road.

Ivan comments "It was a fantastic day and the children seemed to really enjoy looking around the development and learning about the processes of building a new home.

"One of the main aims was to teach them about health and safety, and in particular the dangers of playing on a building site as quite often children only see an interesting looking play area and miss the dangers that could prove to be fatal, but I think we hit the right balance of educational but interesting.

"It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and I hope the children had as much fun as we did!"

Lisa Foster, Foundation Stage Teacher at Fernvale Primary who arranged the trip with the Key Stage 1 and 2 teams, agrees that the day was a huge success. She says "The visit to Scholars Grange proved to be a very valuable learning experience for the children and it was great for them to witness first hand the practical elements of house building.

"The David Wilson staff were fantastic and pitched the tours perfectly to reach the children's understanding.

"The children really enjoyed the day and have been incredibly motivated to do all the follow up work back in the classroom, which I think is partly down to the high-vis jackets and hard hats donated by David Wilson, and we've received nothing but positive feedback from parents. It's been one of the best trips we've arranged as a school, so all in all a huge success."

Scholars Grange offers a selection of one-, two-, three-, four- and five- bedroom homes in a pleasant rural location.

Prices for properties at the development start from £104,950 for a one- bedroom home.

For more information log on to Dwh.co.uk.