The 9–11-year-old primary 6 and 7s, welcomed Springfield staff, who are regenerating the derelict housing site across from the school, to their classroom as they were keen to understand the steps the housebuilders take to design and build their homes, with the environment in mind.

Springfield Group environmental, social and governance (ESG) manager, Tom Gibbs and architect, Steven Hallan, explained the steps Springfield takes ahead of construction to ensure the land isn’t home to protected or rare species and how the developments are designed to include green space, planting, and spaces to encourage biodiversity – such as hedgehog highways, badger tunnels and bat boxes.

They also went into detail about how Springfield designs its homes to ensure they are highly energy efficient by using timber from FSC-approved sources to build its homes and opt for thick insulation paired with innovative heating solutions, such as air source heat pumps and solar panels, to ensure heating is responsibly sourced and not needlessly wasted.

Deans primary teacher, Mrs Hillan, said: “As Deans Primary is part of the Scottish Government’s eco-schools programme, we encourage the pupils to be environmentally aware. The class were really keen to understand how the houses they see getting built every day are made and what materials are used, especially from an environmentally conscious viewpoint. They spent time preparing questions for the Springfield team and were clearly engaged throughout the presentation as they gained new knowledge.”

Architect Steven added: “It’s great to see kids of that age so engaged in environmental issues, particularly in relation to our new build developments. Across the Springfield Group we take pride in doing the right thing and we regularly review our operations and challenge ourselves to improve the steps we take to reduce our business impact on the environment, and it was a pleasure to speak with the pupils at Deans Primary.”