Gala schools in Waverley Railway Line competition
Monday, October 23 2006
An exciting primary school project based on the Waverley Railway Line is being piloted in six Galashiels primary schools this week as part of National Construction Week. One of the youngsters’ tasks will be to come up with an original design layout for the new Tweedbank Station.
The project, ‘Making Tracks’, has been designed by the Borders Construction Industry Forum (BCIF) to make children more aware of the opportunities and importance of jobs within the construction sector.
Approximately 200 children from Balmoral, Tweedbank, Glendinning, Burgh, St Margarets and Langlee will be completing the project over their chosen two days this week.
The project is partially funded by Scottish Borders Council’s Determined to Succeed (DtS) initiative and sponsored by Aitken and Turnbull Architects. It requires teams of children to come up with an original design layout for the new Tweedbank Station, write a newspaper article, design a marketing poster and complete a health and safety quiz.
The winning team will receive books and DVDs for their school and will be presented with their prizes during Enterprise week in November.
The panel of judges will include SBC planners involved with the Waverley project, Aitken and Turnbull architects and DtS staff.
Phil Orr is Enterprise Development Officer for SBC and explained: “Making Tracks aims to encourage an enterprising approach to the debate of the new Waverley Line between Edinburgh and Galashiels. It touches on several strands of the 5-14 curriculum and encourages leadership and team working. I hope that staff and children find Making Tracks exciting and enjoyable, in a very enterprising way.”
Charlotte Waugh of the BCIF added, “The aim of the project is to be fun and educational and to encourage the children to research, plan and design. It will also help illustrate the many job roles involved in construction, why they are needed, and the many different aspects that have to be thought about and carried out correctly to construct such a large scale project.”
If the pilot is successful, the project will be rolled out to other interested Borders primary schools next year.
For more information, please contact the Borders Construction Industry Forum on 01896 820469.
Unified Solutions.