St Peter’s pupils tour Kingsway Business Park

Date published: 17 May 2007

Pupils from St Peter’s C of E Primary School were taken on an exciting and educational tour of the Kingsway Business Park.  Year 4 pupils have been working on a cross curriculum project focused on Kingsway and were delighted at the prospect of translating their school work in to the reality of the Kingsway development.

The school project has been led by Alex McGarry, Head of Year 4, at St Peter’s C of E Primary School.  The entrance to the Kingsway site is visible from St Peter’s School and Ms McGarry, encouraged by the Kingsway Partnership’s efforts to ensure that the jobs for future generations are filled from within Rochdale Borough, felt it was important that the pupils were as involved as possible with the Kingsway site.

With great enthusiasm, the pupils have been busy completing varying work on the project, including ecology studies, community debate, traffic statistics and the job opportunities the site will bring.  Ms McGarry felt that the opportunity to see the site at first hand would be a valuable experience for the pupils.

Arranged in connection with Costain Ltd, the site construction contractor for the Phase 1 infrastructure works, the tour began with a talk from Bert Marram, Works Manager for Costain.  Mr Marram explained the health and safety procedures the pupils needed to be aware of whilst on site.  Once these important messages had been conveyed, the pupils were taken on site by a team of Costain employees and St Peter’s school teachers. 

Walking the length of the new spine road which will go through the heart of the business park, the pupils were able to see Stanney Brook Park, construction of ponds, landscaping and planting works and the first plot under construction.   The pupils thoroughly enjoyed their visit which was evident through their enthusiastic questions.

Tayyub Majeed, a pupil from St Peter’s, aged 9, explained: "Kingsway is a great project and very few residents are against it. It will be a short cut to the M62 and some of the 11,000 trees have been planted and I think it's beginning to look beautiful. It's also an opportunity for local people to work there."

Ms McGarry commented: "Kingsway isn’t a text book project, it’s real and it’s happening on our doorstep.  Teaching our pupils about Kingsway, its impact and the opportunities it will provide in the future, is very important.  The pupils thoroughly enjoyed the tour as it allowed them to see at first hand the scale of Kingsway and to have a sneak preview of what it will look like on completion. Our next trip is to see the Kingsway Model at the Wheatsheaf Library."

Rob Green, Operations Director for the Kingsway Partnership, commented: "Kingsway will provide fantastic employment opportunities for the Borough’s school pupils once they have completed their education, whilst providing their parents with employment opportunities now.  We are delighted at the fantastic work St Peter’s have been completing and we hope to work with other schools across the Borough to encourage similar engagement with Kingsway."