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Lesson in house building for Ebchester School children

March 2014

Children from a local primary school got a lesson in house building from Story Homes and Builder Bear this week.

Pupils and teachers from Ebchester CE Primary School visited The Woodlands development in Shotley Bridge to find out more about house building.

Twenty five pupils aged between four and seven came along to the building site as part of their school ‘buildings’ project. The topic involves understanding how houses are made, which products are used and which type of trades people are involved in building a house. The school currently has a ‘building corner’ where the children can wear high visibility jackets and hard hats while the construct their own buildings.

While touring The Woodlands development with Story Homes site manager Julian Bulman, the pupils were able to learn more about the bricks, stone, wood, cable, pipes and plasterboard used to build each house. They were also able to watch a number of different trades at work, from plasterers and plumbers to roofers and bricklayers.

Judith Williamson, teacher at Ebchester Primary School said of the visit: “The children were absolutely delighted with their trip to The Woodlands today and the visit has been a great help to support work on their buildings project back at school. It was a fantastic experience for the children and engaged them all in different ways, and of course they all loved meeting builder bear too.”

The children were later joined by Story Homes’ mascot Builder Bear. He will be visiting Ebchester School later this month to teach the children about staying safe when they are close to building sites.

The Woodlands is a development of 240 high quality homes close to Shotley Bridge hospital. The development is now into its third phase with more than 80 homes already completed.