Larkfleet donates scale model of home to local college

June 21, 2017 / Keith Osborne
Larkfleet donates scale model of home to local college

Housebuilder Larkfleet Homes – winner of numerous awards including prestigious WhatHouse? Awards – has underlined its relationship with New College Stamford by donating a new model house to the establishment, following a similar donation to  Greater Peterborough UTC.

The college offers a range of courses covering different construction industry skills, among them skilled trades such as brickwork, carpentry, electrical and plumbing. Courses take place in a new £3.5m, CITB-approved construction skills centre. The scale model is of a typical, timber-framed home designed to the latest standards, and can be assembled and disassembled by students following drawings provided with it.

Larkfleet Homes joint managing director Helen Hick says of the company’s donation: “It was a great pleasure to hand over the model house to New College Stamford and further strengthen our links with the college. At Larkfleet we believe it is vital to invest in the future of young people, especially those interested in a career in construction. The model house is just one more way in which we are supporting the next generation of construction professionals.”

Karl Barfoot of Kestrel Timber Frame, the company that designed and built the model, adds: “I’ve enjoyed collaborating with the college. It’s great to give something back and teach a new generation of construction workers with our model houses.”

Janet Meenaghan, the principal at New College Stamford, who with head of construction at the college Richard Brickwood received the model at an official presentation ceremony, says: “New College Stamford greatly values its long-standing and positive relationship with Larkfleet Homes. Our students already benefit in many ways from the partnership, from apprenticeship training and work experience opportunities to site visits.

“We are delighted to receive Larkfleet’s gift of a scale model timber-framed house, designed and built to the latest, environmentally-friendly specifications. The model house is accompanied by a set of blueprints which will enable our students to take it apart and reassemble it. It will be a valuable addition to their learning programmes at college.”

Among the programme of projects that the model with be utilised in is one on communications, where a team of students holds the plans in one room and a member of the group has to convey instructions in person to another team looking after the model itself in a separate room, to see which teams finish the project correctly in the most efficient way.

 

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