Promoting key health and safety message

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Apr 20, 2007

Three pupils from Newall Green Primary School in Wythenshawe are celebrating after taking top honours in ISG Totty Building's site safety competition.

Siobhan Merryfield, James Johnston and Becky Leigh are the envy of their classmates after producing the winning designs for the poster competition, which the contractor organised as part of its GBP830K project to build a new extension to increase classroom capacity at the school.

ISG Totty Building set the pupils the challenge of designing a site safety poster highlighting the dangers posed by construction sites, with the winning entries displayed across the school.

ISG Totty's group health and safety advisor, Dr David Resendez, led the judging panel and found the selection of the eventual winners a difficult process.

"The competition is designed to make children actively think about what specific dangers they may encounter around construction sites, and in addition to the formal safety talks that we give in assembly, we have found that by engaging pupils through a creative channel, this important message really hits home.

"The standard of entries from Newall Green Primary School was very high and choosing the individual winners was not an easy task.

Eventually we decided that Siobhan's poster should take the top spot in the Reception Class category.

James won the Year 3 category with his design, and Becky secured first place in the Year 4 competition with her poster featuring the slogan 'Keep Safe At All Times'.

All three posters will now take pride of place around the site to reinforce our commitment to safety".

The three pupils were presented with a framed copy of their winning entries and GBP25 worth of vouchers by construction industry ambassador Ivor Goodsite at a ceremony in front of the entire school, where ISG Totty Building is currently on target to complete the construction of a new single-storey extension by August, which will provide accommodation for three additional classrooms and a new staff room.