Site visit for Doncaster bricklaying students

February 18, 2019 / Keith Osborne
Site visit for Doncaster bricklaying students

Last week, Duchy Homes welcomed a team of college students to its Roseberry Park development in Hessle to get a first-hand look at the work and organisation that are essential to a new homes site.

There were 14 students from Doncaster College on the visit, all working towards a Diploma Level 1 in Brickwork. After a site induction, they were given a tour of the 26-home development by Duchy Homes site manager Richard Stancliffe and construction manager Kevin Bapty.

Students were able to experience the efficient co-ordination of trades on site and the time management of the build programme that is crucial, particularly with the housebuilder planning to open a show home in April and completing the first sale plot in June.

They were able to see a number of plots at different stages of construction, and were joined by Lindsey Johnson, the managing director of Clover Brickworks, who explained different techniques including working to gauge, insulation, damp-proofing, drainage and jointing.

This sort of site visit is an ideal complement to the students’ classroom learning in relation to new build development, construction of foundations, and techniques used in superstructure brickwork. It was organised by work placement officer Chris Pheasey and lecturer Steve Ellison.

Pheasey said: “At Doncaster College, site visits are a very important part of our courses. Visiting a ‘live’ construction site gives our students a valuable insight into the building industry and enhances their understanding of how taught and theoretical principles are applied in practice.”

Duchy’s Richard Stancliff said: “Roseberry Park provides a great opportunity for students to see the construction of homes to incredibly high standards. At Duchy Homes we take great pride in delivering excellence as standard and we continue to be recognised for the high quality of our craftsmanship by only working with first-class tradespeople. The students from Doncaster College represent the future of the building industry and it’s great to see them showing such enthusiasm for construction. I hope we inspired them today to keep raising standards and have shown them what can be achieved.”

One of the students, Callum Mckinney, commented: “I could really tell that it was a good environment to work in and everyone had high expectations. My ambition is to run a bricklaying team on a site like this.”

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