Proud to support great local causes in Cambuslang!
Taylor Wimpey’s Newton Farm Site Manager wins national housebuilding award
Dougie Kirkland, Site Manager at Newton Farm, is celebrating once again having won a prestigious national housebuilding award. Out of 16,000 entries, Dougie has been honoured with a NHBC (National House Building Council) Pride in the Job Quality Award, which is the seventh quality award of his career.
The awards recognise an individual’s dedication to building high-quality homes for new homebuyers and are presented following a rigorous judging process by NHBC inspectors. This includes assessing the developments throughout the year, as well as spot checks, giving homebuyers the assurance that our Newton Farm development provides top-quality homes and excellent customer service.
Dougie said: “I’m delighted to have won a Quality Award. It’s a fantastic honour, not just for me, but the whole team at Newton Farm. They all work incredibly hard and take great pride in ensuring that the homes we build are completed to the highest possible standards.”
Brian Henderson, Production Director of Taylor Wimpey West Scotland, added: “We are committed to maintaining the highest levels of quality and customer service, and this recognition has ensured that we continue to be an NHBC award-winning housebuilder year after year. Once again, Dougie’s Quality Award is thoroughly deserved, and we’ll all be supporting him as he progresses through to the regional heats and hopefully to the grand final in London.”
St Bride’s Primary School Receives Unusual Storage Donation
As part of our ongoing commitment to working in partnership with local communities, we have recently donated a large storage container to St Bride’s Primary School in Cambuslang. This unusual donation has created safe and secure storage for the children’s bikes while they are learning in school.
An enthusiastic group of parents, teachers and children have exercised their creative flair to paint and decorate the container to create possibly one of the most vibrant and interesting bicycle storage areas in South Lanarkshire.
Commenting on the support it has received from Taylor Wimpey, Paul Wright, Active Schools Co- Ordinator from South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture said: “We are extremely grateful for the support that we have received from Taylor Wimpey and we can’t thank them enough for their generous donation. We actively encourage as many children as possible to get on their bikes and cycle to school.
“This storage container, which has been beautifully decorated by a team of parents, teachers and children, has created the additional safe storage that we so badly needed. On behalf of everyone at St Bride’s Primary School, I would like to say a huge thank you to the team at Taylor Wimpey.”
Audrey Ross, Sales and Marketing Director said: “We are proud to be able to support St Bride’s Primary School with this most unusual donation, and we know the container is already being put to good use. Being able to work with local businesses and organisations that surround our developments means a great deal to us, and it’s great to know that we are helping to make a difference to the lives of people in local communities.”
Katie's Badge Design Is A Winner For New School in Cambuslang
The unveiling of the new Newton Farm Primary School signals a real milestone of achievement for everyone involved in the delivery of the master plan vision for the area, but for one family it means they’ll have a hand in this area’s future for a very long time to come.
Katie Anderson, aged 6, lives with her family in a new home at our Newton Farm development, and she was the winner of a competition to design the new school badge. She’s moved into Primary 2 in the new school, and her mum Julie is absolutely delighted that her daughter’s design was chosen as the winner as she explains: “The opening of the new primary school is a really exciting time for Newton Farm and we’re just so proud of Katie.
“Her school badge design will be worn by children for many years to come, and that will always give us a very special connection to this area and the school. What’s been lovely is that all the children who were joining the new school have been involved with it in lots of different ways – one little girl has designed the school tie and colours, Katie designed the badge and all of the children were involved in choosing the name for the school.”
Katie used the setting of Newton Farm as the inspiration for her design as she explains: “I thought about the countryside around Newton Farm and the deer that we sometimes see. And my thistle design was to be part of our surroundings just like the countryside and the deer are.”
Mrs Meechan, Head Teacher at Newton Farm Primary School comments: “We’re thrilled with the badge design that Katie has created for our new school, and our children are all looking very smart in their new uniforms. The school badge design has even been etched into the glass entrance door to our beautiful new school and it is already creating a talking point for visitors.”
As well as the excitement of the new school, Katie’s family are really enjoying family life at Newton Farm as mum Julie adds: “We looked around several areas and we fell in love with the space of the four bedroom detached Maxwell house. But when we realised that we could buy exactly the same house at Newton Farm and move back to Cambuslang where I’d grown up, we just knew it was the right move for us.”
We’re Guiding Kids Along The Path To Healthy Living!
This autumn we are urging families in Cambuslang to leave the car keys at home and make the journey to school on foot instead.
Once again we’re supporting Walk to School Month, an annual initiative held in October that aims to promote healthy living. The initiative also aims to reduce levels of traffic and make roads safer for all.
With the evenings drawing in as the darker months approach, we have handed over 750 high-visibility snap bands to Newton Farm Primary School and St Charles Primary School in Newton Farm to help keep pupils safe on their way to and from school.
The donation forms part of a national Taylor Wimpey scheme to supply more than 14,900 snap bands to schoolchildren all across the country.
According to Living Streets, the charity behind the Walk to School campaign, 70% of youngsters made the journey to school on foot a generation ago, but now that number has more than halved.* It is the organisation’s aim to reverse this downward trend.
A team from our Newton Farm development also took the opportunity to give the children at both schools some reminders about health and safety ahead of the school October holidays as production at Newton Farm continues.
We are always keen to promote the dangers associated with playing near any construction site, and our team took this ideal opportunity to raise the awareness of the children’s need to be extra vigilant as the work progresses to deliver its range of new homes.
Catherine Meecham, Head Teacher at Newton Farm Primary School, says: “As well as promoting a healthy lifestyle to students, walking to school is also a huge help in reducing the volume of traffic outside school, thereby making the area safer for all.
“On behalf of our whole school, I would like to say a big thank you to Taylor Wimpey for this donation and for their help in raising awareness of Walk to School Month among our pupils and their parents.”
Margaret Harris, Head Teacher at St Charles Primary School, adds: “This is a fun and informative way to engage our children in getting active safely. Many of our children already walk to school and using the high-viz bands will certainly brighten up their journey to and from school whilst also helping to keep them safe.
Newton Farm Primary School Opens Its Doors
We are delighted to welcome our new neighbours as Newton Farm Primary School is now officially open - signalling an incredible milestone in the delivery of the masterplan vision for this community. As part of our Section 75 Agreement with South Lanarkshire Council we provided around seven acres of serviced land for Newton Farm Primary School to be built, and so far our education contributions to date have reached just over £3.1m. We will make further contributions of £6.8m over the next 4.5 years underpinning our commitment to the local area.
Newton Farm Primary School is located on Harvester Avenue overlooking our new show homes at the development, and it can cater for up to 500 primary aged children. This new purpose-built school also has a nursery and it offers a range of impressive features including an integrated Community Facility with a full-sized 3G football pitch ensuring that it will be a popular hub in this new and emerging community.
Taylor Wimpey Supports Local School Sensory Garden at Newton Farm, Cambuslang
We have teamed up with neighbouring primary school in Newton Farm – St Charles Primary School - to give them a generous £500 donation towards the creation of a new sensory garden where pupils will be encouraged to explore all five senses and experience the sights, sounds and tranquillity of the new space that’s being created.
As well as a generous cash injection, we have also supplied a member of its team to clear and prepare the area of ground ahead of the installation of new sensory plants and benches for the children to be able to relax and enjoy the most of their new garden.
As work continues at Newton Farm development, the site team were more than happy to offer a helping hand as Audrey Ross, Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey West Scotland adds: “We’re always keen to offer our support within the local communities in which we build, and we were delighted to be able to help with this unique request from St Charles Primary School.
“Creating a sensory garden within the school playground will provide a new space for children to learn as well as play and I’m sure it will be a very rewarding experience for the children as they watch their garden grow and mature.”
Eileen Feeley, Deputy Head Teacher adds: “We were thrilled when Taylor Wimpey said they could help us with our unusual request because without their assistance we were concerned that it just wouldn’t have been possible to start our new sensory garden this year.
“They’ve given us a great helping hand to get the area cleared, and that means that we can use their generous donation towards creating some of the lovely features that we want to include within our new garden space.
“The children will be fully involved in choosing what plants and vegetables to grow in our new garden as well as other aspects which we hope to include such as wind chimes and a water feature. I’m sure they’ll make a great job of creating a garden that we’re all very proud of.”
We gave the local children of nearby St Charles Primary School some reminders about health and safety.
We are keen to promote the dangers associated with playing near any construction site, and raise awareness of the children’s need to be extra vigilant as construction of our new homes at the development continues.
Being proactive with local schools has proven an effective deterrent in the past as our production manager, Brian Henderson explains: “Health and safety in and around our construction areas is of vital importance to Taylor Wimpey, and taking this type of proactive approach with local schools allows us to reinforce just how important it is for children to stay away from building sites.
“Our lesson plan delivered by our Health & Safety consultants allows us to promote a very important message in a fun and interactive way. Having the chance to chat to the children in school serves as the perfect reminder for the children that building sites are not playgrounds!”
Margaret Harris is Head Teacher of St Charles Primary School: “I was delighted to welcome Taylor Wimpey into our school to highlight the dangers associated with children playing near any construction site. Given their development of new homes is very close to our school, and we will have a significant amount of construction work in the local area for some time this proactive engagement with our children is very important.