You goat to see this

Pupils at Hugh Myddelton Primary School in North London will now be met by chickens and goats as they arrive at school, thanks to a new urban farm and outdoor learning centre.

Our Mount Pleasant enabling works project team, who together with Blue Sky Building (BSB) and lead contractor, Morrisroe, were behind the project, won a British Construction Industry award under the category, ‘Community Engagement Initiative of the Year’ for their collaboration with the school on the creation of the centre.

As a result of the work, gardens in front of the school, which is rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, now contain a small urban farm – one of the first of its kind in an inner-city school. Included are an animal area housing chickens, guinea pigs, rabbits and goats, an outdoor classroom, wildlife pond, greenhouse and an allotment space for children to grow their own vegetables and flowers.

Francoise Sweeney at Blue Sky Building, who manages the community engagement for our Mount Pleasant works, said: ‘We are delighted to have won a British Construction Industry Award in the category ‘Community Engagement Initiative of the Year’ for our collaboration with Hugh Myddelton Primary School on the creation of their urban farm and outdoor learning centre.

The judges stated: “It was a breath of fresh air hearing from an SME and a teacher whose engagement efforts had real impacts on the community. The project itself tackled a grass roots need, addressing a number of issues facing inner-city children today. Outstanding.”

The project, which is close to Mount Pleasant Mail Centre, one of our largest and busiest sites, generating around 2,000 vehicle movements per day, has transformed a previously under-used space into an inspiring learning centre, providing educational and therapeutic experiences for the pupils.