Lancashire Eco School Children Get Hands On With Natural and Thermally Efficient Building Materials

St John’s Southworth RC in Nelson, East Lancashire, is an Eco School. The designer, Emma Palmer from Campbell Driver Partnership, has specified building materials which come from natural sources and is keen for the children to have an understanding of the construction process from beginning to end.

Children from St John’s Southworth RC Primary School have been learning about the natural and thermally efficient building materials which are being used to build their new classrooms. Youngsters from the Lomeshaye Road school swapped the classroom for the construction site to see for themselves how their new extension is coming along.

After having cut the sod, taken part in a health and safety briefing and designed their own safety posters for Accrington-based contractor Rosslee Construction, the children are now being introduced to the two main building components – Wienerberger’s Porotherm thermal clay blocks and Second Nature’s natural insulations, sheep’s wool Thermafleece and Edenbloc recycled carpets.

Emma said: “Environmental awareness is very important for the school which has embraced the eco agenda and incorporated green issues into all parts of the curriculum. It follows, therefore, that the new school extension should be as eco-friendly as possible and one of the best ways of doing that is to use products from natural and recycled sources, in this instance clay blocks, sheep’s wool and old carpets! These, when combined, also help to improve the thermal efficiency of the 1970s building - reducing energy use and carbon emissions. Other measures, such as the contractors using recycled rainwater as much as they can, are also contributing to this being an extremely sustainable project.

“This is a chance for the children to get hands on with the products and understand that no matter how modern the buildings around them are, they can be built using the most simple, natural ingredients. It’s great that they’re getting the chance to touch and feel the raw materials that are going into building their new school and I hope it will help them to appreciate how the choices that we make are so important when it comes to reducing our impact on the environment.”

Pupils enjoyed a workshop with representatives from Rosslee Construction, Campbell Driver Partnership, Wienerberger - manufacturer of Porotherm clay blocks - and Second Nature, which makes the two forms of insulation. The Wienerberger display included a chunk of freshly quarried clay alongside a wet piece of extruded [shaped] block and an example of the end product: the tough, fired Porotherm block. Second Nature, meanwhile, gave youngsters the chance to feel the various pieces of insulation and demonstrated samples showing the processing of the product from sheep’s fleece to construction material.