Perthshire-based contractor, Hadden Group, have recently started on site at Hallglen Early Learning and Childcare Centre, Falkirk to design and build a new £2.3m Early Years Centre through the Scottish Procurement Alliance Schools and Community Buildings Framework. This is a welcome return to the school campus for Hadden, having built the existing nursery extension at Hallglen Primary School over ten years ago. Since the project commenced Hadden Group along with Falkirk Council and the existing School and Nursery have been actively engaging with the pupils to encourage an interest in the build process.

Community Engagement Officer Kirsty Clements has been working closely with Site Manager Billy Allan to deliver a series of presentations and workshops for the children at Hallglen Primary and Nursery. To date Kirsty has delivered a presentation on Site Safety in order to highlight the dangers of entering construction sites. The presentation was rounded off by launching a poster competition for the children of the school to get involved in with prizes sponsored by Hadden Group. The winning posters are being displayed on the fencing around their building site and will stay there for the duration of the development.

Further to this, Kirsty and Billy organised a special workshop with the nursery children to build birdboxes and bug hotels to help protect and conserve local wildlife. The workshops were led by Ryan Hutton, a Hadden Group joiner apprentice in his third year. Groups from the nursery were fully involved in building bird boxes and as can be seen in the photos, the young persons were doing the actual sawing and hammering themselves. This was an innovative opportunity for the children to have a real-life experience of construction and kick-start an interest in possibly pursuing a career in construction.

Billy also took the time to show the children some of the plant and equipment on site with the digger grabbing most of the children’s attention!  This led to quite a lengthy question and answer session for Billy! The activities put on by Hadden Group have been well received by those attending, and Hadden has plans to continue their engagement until the completion of the project December 2019.

Adele Hamilton from Hallglen Nursery had this to say about her experience working with Hadden Group: “I cannot speak highly enough of the Hadden team who have worked tirelessly to forge a link with us, accommodate and meet our requests. Our children and families speak highly of Hadden and look forward to seeing the team when they visit, or we visit them. We look forward to working with the team further as the project develops”.

Steven Brady, Hadden Group Managing Director commented: “Hadden Group are committed to not only delivering our projects on-time and on-budget, but also to making a difference and engaging with the communities which we are working in. It is great to see such positive feedback this early in the contract, and we are looking forward to seeing what else we can do as the project progresses”.