October 09

There are many places you can receive an education. A state-of-the-art new school building is undoubtedly the best place, but while that is being built, even the construction site itself – with proper supervision - can offer a superb learning environment.

There are so many ways to capitalise on the value of having an experienced and community minded contractor on site. The most conventional way is a site visit, or tour, allowing pupils and teachers to visualise what may only otherwise be a theory. In Wales and the West Country alone, BAM’s site teams have, in the past year, hosted 1026 pupils and 212 teachers on 46 site visits to what will become hospitals, schools, museums and offices. Showing is telling: understanding danger on site, managing our environment and the techniques that builders use become more meaningful.

A second common way to take advantage of contractors’ expertise is to benefit those studying construction itself. In Bristol BAM’s work with Construction Skills has led to us showing local students aged 14-16 how a construction site is laid out, operated and managed, giving them practical opportunities to use equipment on-site, and setting brick-working exercises. The pupils had a Q&A session with the site team to ask about coursework-related topics. Practical context supporting construction theory has forged an enjoyable ongoing relationship to deliver a construction diploma which includes work placements.

The site team is a resource. Coventry University’s School of Engineering and Construction students found it helpful to have an ex-pupil and BAM assistant planner as a guest lecturer on piling systems – they visit his site for gathering course materials and photographs, receiving mentoring support and even help with dissertations. There really is no better classroom for construction students.

If your school doesn’t have a construction course, we have even set one up from scratch. North Bromsgrove High School asked our Midlands Education Co-ordinator Phil Eves if he’d run a bespoke construction course for Year 10 pupils. Phil devised one lasting two years, forging a unique partnership and a great vocational opportunity. Phil tested the kids commitment by having a six-week trial, involving world environment day activities, mixing concrete and laying brickwork. and only two dropped out while 25 went on to do his course, and are now working towards BTec Level 2 Construction First Diploma, equivalent to four GCSEs at grades A-C. It is an exceptional example – this is not an off-the-peg commitment.

There are other ways a site can be used to support a syllabus.

Art is often used for site hoardings. In Oxford, our creative site manager asked Dionne Barber, a local professional artist, to guide and oversee the pupils of Oxford Community Schools from Years 8-11 over three weeks by running workshops and drop-in sessions. We helped pay for materials and her costs, and the students used the techniques and skills they’d learned from her in scaling up drawings from design stage to decorate the hoardings of one of BAM’s sites at John Radcliffe Hospitals. They got GCSE marks for that and transformed the new Geratology Wing. The paintings are moved to new areas as construction progresses.

Maths is important to construction. At Culcheth in Manchester, where we’re building a High School, we visited six local primary schools whose pupils will move on to it and asked them to measure their new classroom and hall. BAM is going to re-paint it and we need to know how much paint and how many hours it would need and how much it will cost!

We take along various methods of measurement- a small ruler, laser tape measure, wheel measure and long fabric tape measure and get the children (with a bit of help) to measure the length and height of each wall.

Less obviously you can even use construction for business and marketing skills. Young entrepreneurs aged 14-16 from Camden and Islington visited the massive redevelopment behind Kings Cross station. In partnership with others we helped 60 students from different schools by challenging them in teams to design a development they’d like to see built on one of the plots. They prepared drawings, models and marketing literature for their proposed design, taking into account the environment, enterprise and employment opportunities, and then produced a business plan for their proposal. They had to present these ‘Dragon’s Den’ style to a panel of judges including our marketing director, who gave prizes for the best suggestions.

Don’t forget science. The Kings Cross team came up with a good one. They got local primary from St Aloysius Junior School to design planters, which they then made with re-usable timber from the site. Then they teamed up with the local wildlife trust and 26 pupils to visit the park and learn about habitats, plants and wildlife before using their tools to re-create five habitats – wetland, woodland, grassland, wildflower and cornfield – with an activity book to help them calculate the volume of their planters and the budget for their plants. They sowed seeds and won prizes. The idea has been a big hit with Camden’s Education Business Partnership and BAM’s engagement continues.

It’s not all about curricula, however. Another way we’ve discovered to engage and educate using construction is to ‘export’ our site-based skills.

For a few years we have been taking schools across the country to the RHS Spring Garden Show at the Three Counties Agricultural Society Show ground in Malvern. Six schools across the Midlands took part with us this year – over 120 pupils in years 4 to 11. We gave them a brief about time and resources and provided twelve company volunteers to help develop a design for a garden, and work out how to use the materials, agree budgets and establish a plan to build it. We discussed potential risks, health and safety measures and in the week before the show, each team visited the site to construct their gardens to meet the stringent RHS standards. The community gardens involve valuable setting-out skills and activities like groundwork, carpentry, painting, concrete work and mixing materials as well as teamwork.

Work experience, placements, training and mentoring are all frequent activities. Going the extra mile is rewarding for us as well as the people we are working for and the communities we work in. We get to know them and they get to know us. BAM's dedicated education team turns many initiatives - often coming from schools, pupils and local authorities - into reality.

Evaluation of these activities is important. Following a mentoring programme in Bristol, we found from asking students that 92% felt their attitude and behaviour had improved and 96% had improved self-confidence, and attendance and punctuality improved too. The programme, conducted with Patchway Community College, was aimed at students with limited support at home. That tells us a lot about how young people can respond to stimuli outside of the classroom environment.

Your new classroom may not be a construction site, and your new teacher may not be a builder, but the opportunities construction offers go way beyond the building that is left behind.

Kate Wilcox, BAM