Year 4 enjoyed a fantastic opportunity to visit Wates’ construction site in Washington, where they are building a huge new car battery factory.
The purpose of the trip was to learn about careers in construction. Although the site was enormous, all the staff and workers they met made them feel really welcome. They learnt about the huge variety of jobs that are involved in construction and the different skills needed. They then got to dress up in hard hats, high visibility vests and safety goggles for a small tour of the site and to see some of the people who work there. The children were amazed at the size of the site, how many people worked there and how many of the jobs involved working on computers in the offices. After the tour, they finally got the chance to have a go at some of the construction jobs in a group challenge. Their challenge was to build the highest tower possible using ten sheets of paper. In their group, they had to take on the roles of design engineer, manager, quantity surveyor and builder. They all showed fantastic organisation, teamwork, determination and perseverance.
The staff from Wates told them that there were no mistakes, only progress, which really encouraged them to try something new when an idea didn’t work. They were all extremely proud of their towers!
