Building Briefs – November 24th

Elgin High School work experience
Craig, Jake and Rowan with site manager Iain Mackie

Balfour Beatty offers work experience to pupils on £29m Elgin school

Three teenagers have been taking a break from their studies – to help oversee the building of their new school.

Once a week Jake Innes, Craig Alexander and Rowan Duncan leave the classroom for work experience on the construction site of the £29 million Elgin High School.



The boys, all 16, are being given an insight into the construction industry by Balfour Beatty, the main contractors for the replacement school project.

While the rest of their year group are busy on class work only a stone’s-throw away, Jake, Craig and Rowan have been getting to grips with plans and drawings for their new school.

They have also been gaining experience at the sharp end of the contract by observing and learning about the various aspects of the construction process, including scaffolding, steelwork, concrete pouring, roofing, pipe fitting, fire proofing, bricklaying and health and safety.

The experience could prove especially useful to Jake, who has ambitions to be a structural engineer, and Rowan, who has designs on becoming an architect. Craig hopes to go on to become a mechanical engineer.



All three are enjoying following progress on the building of the new school where they will be studying by this time next year provided they stay on to S6.

And they are all agreed that it will be a vast improvement on the existing school, which dates from the late 1970s

There are generally six or seven separate contractors on site at any time, with a total workforce of around 70.

Work is progressing well on both the main school building and on the adjacent sports hall.



Construction began in March and is on schedule for completion next October.

Once pupils have moved in, demolition will begin on the existing school building to make way for a 3G sports pitch, car parking and landscaping.

 

Social Bite team to build Scotland’s first homeless village



The team behind Social Bite is working with EDI Group, City of Edinburgh Council and other homelessness charities on Scotland’s first homeless village.

The social enterprise hopes to raise £500,000 by Christmas to build 10 purpose-built homes in Granton by next summer, which will house up to 20 homeless people at a time.

The cost of maintaining the properties will be funded through housing benefit payments.

Josh Littlejohn, co-founder of Social Bite, said the scheme would create savings for the council, which currently pays for temporary accommodation in hostels and bed and breakfasts.

He told The Herald: “At present councils such as Edinburgh are paying tens of millions of pounds for this. We aim to do this without charging the council anything at all.”

Councillor Joan Griffiths, vice convenor of City of Edinburgh Council, added: “Josh and the Social Bite team do so much good work for homeless people across the city already and we look forward to working with them on their plans.”

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