Setting sites on future careers
Belmont Building skills Thirteen S3 pupils had an opportunity to sample life in the construction industry. They were selected from the design and technology department to take part in the new partnership between the school, Ashleigh Building and Ayrshire College. The project lasted nine sessions of three hours each and gave pupils hands- on experience in brick work, joinery, decoration, plastering and land surveying. The pupils enjoyed their sessions in Ayrshire College. Ashleigh took the pupils on a site visit to one of their current projects, where they were able to walk around the site and learn about the different stages of building a house. Part of the challenge for pupils was to work in groups and present a plan for a housing development. Each team had to make a presentation to the directors of Ashleigh and Ayrshire College and go through what they would do with the piece of land that they were given to develop. The winning team was Samuel Rae, Boyd Wilson, Samantha Maw and Heather Bowden. The pupils involved will look to gain the Dynamic Youth Award for their efforts. David Smith from Ashleigh Construction said: “It is imperative for the construction industry that pupils are fully aware of the careers available to them and we are fully committed to ensuring such opportunities are promoted. We would reserve special thanks to the pupils for their enthusiasm. The final submissions to the project brief were all very impressive.” Cameron Bell from Ayrshire College said: “The pupils engaged well throughout all of the sessions and it was great to see such an enthusiastic group who developed their knowledge of all areas of the construction industry. As one of the panel judging the team presentations I was very impressed by the creativity and quality of the content and the confidence displayed in the presentations and would be delighted to be involved in further projects of this nature”. Karate S1 pupil Aidan Moore has just returned from Dublin, where he competed in the World Karate Championships. This was a major competition with 2356 competitors taking part. There were 70 participants in Aidan’s category and he was delighted to win a bronze medal. Cricket S4 pupil Puskar Bhandari has been selected to play cricket for Scotland. He is part of the Scotland team playing at Carlisle this week.