Homebuilder visits school to urge children to 'Stay Safe Stay Away' from construction sites

The Year 3 class enjoyed an interactive session, which covered the history of building houses as well as the variety of fantastic and varied career opportunities within the industry, but there was also a stark warning about the dangers of going into construction areas unsupervised.

Cala’s construction team, including Janice Challen, Construction Admin Support, visited the Chidham Parochial Primary School pupils to discuss how Cala keeps its nearby Rosebrook development safe, with children able to watch a video created especially by Cala to help highlight some of the hidden dangers that can be found on building sites.

Stay Safe, Stay Away also provides a range of curriculum-based activities including designing a site safety poster and writing a news article.

The initiative is a core part of Cala Homes’ Community Pledge, the housebuilder’s commitment to bring meaningful investment to its local communities.

Janice said: “At Cala, we are dedicated to spreading the message to children that construction sites are not somewhere to play around and the Stay Safe, Stay Away programme is designed to do just that. Although we ensure all Cala sites are secure, it’s important to us to let young people know the dangers around a construction area, so they don’t put themselves in harm’s way.

“Even though the message is a serious one, we hope that our animated film, presentation, and fun activities allow children to be engaged and really understand the topic.

“This initiative also aims to bring to life at grassroots level how new homes are developed and how housebuilders help to create sustainable new communities. We also wanted to highlight the many different jobs involved in building homes, from land buying and construction to sustainability, which we hope the children thoroughly enjoyed.”

Mrs Kim Thornton, headteacher of Chidham Parochial Primary School, said: ‘‘We here at Chidham Parochial Primary School want to say a huge thank you to Cala Homes for running their Stay Safe, Stay Away initiative at our school.

“Making sure our students stay safe outside of school grounds is a huge priority for us and the Cala team provided the kids with vital information about the dangers of playing on a building site whilst also providing an extremely engaging and interactive background on the construction industry.”

For more information on Cala Homes, visit https://www.cala.co.uk/.