Aggregate Industries puts school on the right path

Aggregate Industries has stepped in to help a Leicester school to provide vital access to specialist classrooms for its students.

The leading construction materials supplier, which has its headquarters in Coalville, Leicestershire, was approached by Keyham Lodge School in Hamilton to solve the problem it had accessing its new educational pods.

The school, a Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) academy for 11-16 year-olds, has a high percentage of pupils with functioning autism diagnosis and a rising number of students applying but it operates on a limited sized site.

The education ‘pods’ were installed 90 metres away from the main school building on an area of soft grass which often proved difficult to access during bad weather.

With no available additional budget, the school had to put access plans on hold until Aggregate Industries came to their aid. After a conversation with the company, the school successfully applied for Aggregate Industries’ social value funding (material/labor donation) to design and install a new footpath.

A team from the company’s Midlands Contracting team, part of the newly implemented Surfacing Solutions division, were on site for three days where they removed 45 tonnes of soil and turf before constructing a new hardwearing asphalt footpath to access the pods.

Jonathan Falls, Midlands Area Manager for Aggregate Industries Surfacing Solutions Division, said: “We were really happy to support such a worthy cause and help the school create better access to these vital additional teaching spaces.

“It is great to be able to support our local communities in this way. We may be a national company but our workforce is local to our sites and they enjoy being able to give something back in this way.”

Richard Doyle, Assistant Headteacher at the school, said: “I would just like to take the opportunity to say a huge thank you to everyone from the team at Aggregate Industries. From my initial enquiry to the completion of the project, the AI team could not have done more to ensure the project ran in a smooth and timely manner, whilst understanding the needs of our students during the operations of a busy school day.

“Their professionalism coupled with the finished product will transform the schools offering and capacity to work with the city’s most vulnerable students. This simply is not a path to us, but a gateway to provide an environment where students can learn and develop their full potential in an accessible and safe space.”