Farrans builds bright futures for almost 400 Rotherhithe Primary School pupils with Early Explorers Week
Farrans Construction, which is currently building the new Rotherhithe Primary School in London on behalf of Southwark Council, recently held a bespoke Early Explorers Enterprise Week for almost 400 pupils which was designed to spark an interest in STEM subjects and the wider construction industry.
As a responsible business we recognise our ability to have a positive and long-lasting societal impact through the delivery of social value by bringing economic, social and environmental benefits to the communities in which we operate. 
As part of Farrans ongoing engagement in the Rotherhithe community, the Early Explorer Enterprise Week provided pupils with the opportunity to get involved in the new build process and tapped into all aspects including, health and safety on site, sustainability, design, structural engineering and creativity.
The construction project includes a 3,400m2 school building replacement for Rotherhithe Primary School. It will accommodate up to 630 pupils as well as a 60-place integrated nursery. The school is being constructed on the existing playgrounds of the active Rotherhithe Primary School. The scheme is imagined as ‘a school in a garden’, conceptually extending and capturing the green space and openness of Southwark Park into the school site, creating a stimulating and protected outdoor environment for the children.
As part of the activity week an environmental workshop under the project theme of School in a Garden – ‘Mush to Bloom’ – made use of post-consumer paper which was transformed into wildlife shaped seed blocks teaching the children about environmental issues that might impact on site.
Sarah Fearon, Community Business Partner at Farrans Construction, said: “The pupils of Rotherhithe Primary School were enthusiastic Early Explorers and we had a busy week of activities which reached through all year groups. Farrans has a team of in-house community business partners and we work collaboratively with our stakeholders to ensure that we deliver solutions and programmes which meet the needs and deliver long lasting impact on the areas we are active in.”
Lisa Christiansen, Head of Rotherhithe Primary School commented, “We would like to thank Farrans for delivering an excellent programme of activities which saw children of all ages engaged in a range of creative science and engineering challenges. Our Year 5 and 6’s took engineering and quantity surveying to the next level by designing a school out of recyclable household materials while considering costs against budget and even went on themselves to install electricity and lighting in them. Our pupils learned about the importance of teamwork, design, creativity and environmental issues which will enrich their continued curriculum learning experience.’’
