Pupils get first viewing of new Kingdom housing development in Leven
A group of Fife primary pupils donned hard hats and hi-visibility vests to learn about construction and see new homes completed by Kingdom Housing Association near their school in Leven.
The visit to the building site by pupils at St Agatha’s Primary school was linked to project work the children are doing in the classroom.
The new affordable homes at Linnwood Drive will have the postal address of Tassie Court, to mark the site of the old Silver Tassie pub and although developed by Kingdom as part of the Fife Housing Association Alliance, they will be owned and rented out by Glen Housing Association.
Bill Banks, group chief executive at Kingdom, said: “The Fife Alliance affordable housing programme allows various community initiatives to be progressed to bring added value to the housing projects, demonstrating they are much more than just bricks and mortar.
“As part of our community benefits approach, Kingdom is committed to working with local schools on all our new affordable housing projects. The project at Linnwood Drive is very close to St Agatha’s Primary School, therefore this provided the opportunity for Kingdom and the contractor, Campion Homes, to give the children the chance to learn more about the construction sector and we hope the children have enjoyed their project and learnt more about house building.”
The pupils recently enjoyed an adventurous day when they had the opportunity to visit and experience a working building site near their school. The children were given a Health & Safety induction before going onto the site and were very excited when they saw the yellow hard hats and high vis vests they had to wear.
The development on Linnwood Drive is very close to the school and the site visit linked perfectly into work the P1 and P2 children were already doing in class.
Marie Hagney, head teacher at St Agatha’s, said: “The children really enjoyed the visit and found it fascinating. They gave us a lot of interesting feedback.
“Some of the comments included: ‘It was fun seeing the house being built and hiding in the wardrobe was the best bit!’; ‘I liked seeing how the pipes were under the ground. There was gas, electricity and water’; ‘I liked seeing how the bathroom was being made and learning what the big holes in the wall were for and how the men were going to finish it.’ and ‘The digger scooping up the stones was cool’.”
Campion Homes were delighted to allow the children the chance to visit and learn about the daily workings of a building site.
Dougie Herd, Campion’s construction director, said: “We are more than a house builder and are always keen to support the local communities where we are developing sites. I’m really glad the children enjoyed their visit and learnt more about how houses are built.”
The £700,000 project at Linnwood Drive provides six new rented homes designed to meet the needs of the local community. The Scottish Government provided Kingdom with part funding of £470,000 as part of the Affordable Housing Investment Programme for Fife.