Students turn into engineers and conservationists at local primary school
Students turn into engineers and conservationists at Doncaster primary school (msn.com)
College students and staff have joined forces with Grange Lane Infant School, Rossington for their annual Community Action Project. This will be the third project that the multi award winning employability college have completed in the City of Doncaster.
Harrison College prioritises preparation for employment within their study programme and the Community Action Project brings together many of the skills that they have learnt including leadership, teamwork and problem solving.
During the week, 25 students descended upon Grange Lane Infant School in Rossington to overhaul their outdoor space to create an outdoor learning environment that would engage and inspire key stage 1 children. The students were supported by the staff team from Harrison College along with Volunteer It Yourself and TCV.
Ardagh Group sponsored the project, which will continue to run in the new academic year and will contribute to the students achieving their Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.
James Grant, Plant Director at Ardagh Group visited the project during the week and commented: “It is absolutely fantastic to see that our sponsorship and engagement with Harrison College has been so worthwhile and it is promoting outdoor learning and supporting the school ethos.”
Students arrived at an overgrown expanse of unused field and were tasked with a range of small projects that they had to plan and manage to ensure that the vision was delivered upon. Amongst the projects that were being delivered on included a mud kitchen, tool bench, pond, seating area and signs.
Students learnt how to use tool safely and recycled materials such as used pallets into a mud kitchen and seating. They used their functional maths skills to measure and design the products, maximising upon the materials that had been donated by Doncaster’s business community.
Mike Peebles, Chief Commercial Officer “The annual community action project is an important part of preparing our students for the world of work as they are working for a client and delivering on a clear project brief. None of the work would be possible without the fantastic support we received from local businesses, their response has been overwhelming positive and all the team at Harrison College thank them.”
Materials and resources were donated by Jewson, Barratt Homes, Simplus PVC Recycling, Polypipe Building Products, Eurovia, Refurnish, David Wilson Homes and Johnstones Trade Paint.During the week, children from Key Stage 1 at Grange Lane Infant School came and helped to paint trellis and work with some of the students from Harrison College. As they were working four of the children became very excited and asked, “When can we start exploring?”.
Louise Chappell, Headteacher at Grange Lane Infant School, “Our work with Harrison college has absolutely transformed our forest school provision. This has allowed us to extend its use from just an after school club used by a few children to an intrinsic part of our school provision used by the whole school community. During the week, the conduct, enthusiasm and interaction of everyone was exemplary and our pupils lived working with them which was evident in the celebratory ribbon cutting event! Thank you from everyone at Grange Lane! We look forward to working with you in the future.”
At Harrison College the curriculum is employer led and is based around real life business projects, much like the one completed at Grange Lane Infant School. Harrison College are always on the look out for businesses to pose challenges and projects for the students to solve therefore if you are interested in being part of the next group of projects please contact Mike Peebles, Chief Commercial Officer mpeebles@harrisoncollege.co.uk
