Power giants deliver life skills lesson
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A TINY Inverness-shire primary school is in partnership with two power giants to upgrade the playground garden.
Pupils of Farr Primary are working with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks’ (SSEN) and its contractor, MSVE Transmission, to project manage the garden work.
The pupils have formed their own project management team to make their stone-chipped school garden fully inclusive for everyone at the school and have approached SSEN, which is constructing a new substation and overhead line nearby, to make their ideas a reality.
Initial improvements will include removing the stone chips, lowering flower baskets and looking at ways to attract more wildlife, particularly birds and bees. A sensory space and better outdoor environment for everyone at the school will also be created.
Farr Primary 3/4 teacher, Amanda Menzies, said: "Alex, Charlotte, Magnus, Benjamin, Hannah and I along with Judy McInnes from the nursery were appointed as a sub-group to lead the school through the changes.
"We love our hard hats and working along with the engineers from MSVE, planning the new garden. We take charge of gathering the school’s ideas, taking minutes at meetings and speaking at assembly. Both companies have been extremely generous with their time and resources. It is a wonderful experience and we have been overwhelmed. The children are seeing the relevance of numeracy and literacy in the real world and how skills transfer."
The school approached SSEN through Farr Community Liaison Group (CLG) which was established to ensure that the local community was kept informed throughout the Knocknagael-Tomatin reinforcement project.
SSEN Overhead Line project manager Joanne Seath said: "When the project entered construction, we formed the Community Liaison Group to ensure that we continued to meet on a regular basis to discuss ongoing works and to identify opportunities where we can contribute to the local community.
"When Farr Primary approached the CLG for help, our overhead line contractors, MSVE Transmission, stepped up and offered to provide the pupils with a fully interactive project management experience, from initial site survey through to design, construction and completion."
Colin Kelly, MSVE transmission construction manager, said: "Our engineers have visited the school and with the help of appointed team leaders have surveyed the garden.
"Layout drawings will be produced to scale allowing the pupils to interact with the current layout and design their new garden. From there, through visits with the school, we will turn their drawings into a reality showing the pupils every step involved in designing and building a project and show them the basic processes of a construction job."
Farr Primary head teacher, Alan Graham added: "It’s a wonderful work skills project, involving the whole school. Not only will it leave a legacy in the school, but the children are appreciating that their contributions make a difference. A lot of learning is taking place in a meaningful way."
The Knocknagael-Tomatin project will see the construction of a new 275kV overhead line between an existing substation at Knocknagael and a new substation in Glen Kyllachy.
