Pupils at two Edinburgh primary schools visited a neighbouring construction site as part of a campaign to warn children about the dangers of playing on building sites.
The supervised visits for children at St Francis RC Primary School and Niddrie Mill Primary School were arranged by affordable housing developer Lovell, which is building a major housing development at Wauchope Square. The pupils were shown around the site and were given a chance to see some of the equipment used such as safety hard hats and hi-visibility clothing and diggers. They also had the opportunity to be photographed at the controls of a 16-tonne excavator.
Lovell project manager, Bryan Worth, hopes the visits will help the children to become aware that construction sites aren’t a safe area to use as a playground. He said: “Although it’s fun for the children, the visits have a serious purpose. We talk about the potential dangers on site and help them understand what can go wrong if they go on to a site unsupervised. Our aim is to drive home the important message that they should never view construction sites as a playground and that they should stay safe by staying away.”
St Francis RC Primary School acting head teacher, Margot MacAlister, added: “The children very much enjoyed their visit to the construction site and were keen to share their knowledge and understanding of being safe on a building site on their return to school.”
Lovell is also holding a poster competition at each school, which encourages pupils to design a poster that reinforce the message that children should never enter a building site unsupervised.
If Site visits aren’t an option there is an excellent powerpoint presentation and accompanying K1/K2 curriculum based workbooks availble from the RoSPA website. It’s called ‘Splaat’ (Safe play at all times) and was designed in conjunction with RoSPA and LAING Builders.