Three schools currently teaching the DEC curriculum have been ‘adopted’ by Laing O’Rourke; St Ambrose Barlow RC High School in Salford, Skipton Girls’ High School in North Yorkshire and More House School in Farnham, Surrey, which is a school for boys with a Specific Learning Difficulty.
“We fund the DEC programme for two years, which provides all teacher training, professionally-led workshops and all DEC learning resources.
“This includes access to industry standard software, laser measurement devices and architectural design kits.”
Laing O’Rourke sponsored St Ambrose, its first school, in 2013, and followed with the other two schools in 2014. Students use similar equipment to that of our engineers, with our employees regularly visiting pupils and assisting the teachers in lessons.
Daniel McDonagh, STEM Coordinator and teacher of DEC at St Ambrose confirms:
“We’ve had quantity surveyors, building services engineers, architects – the full spectrum of people from across the construction industry.
“Laing O’Rourke professionals have come in and worked with the pupils in an informal way, and the children have asked lots of questions, planning out a building and the costs, going through the entire process.”
