Primary school pupils look to the future at new health centre site visit

St. Mary's CE Primary school visiting the new Kirkholt health centre which will be built by spring 2020

Children from St Mary's CE Primary School in Rochdale were treated like VIPs during a trip and perimeter walk round the new Kirkholt Health Centre, which is halfway through construction.

The class of 29 pupils in year three were told about the new health centre, how it will look once completed and the benefits to the local community.

Speaking about the perimeter walk visit, Rachel Jaques, year three teacher from St. Mary's CE Primary School said: “The topic the children are working on at the moment is ‘love where you live’ and the opportunity to come and have a look at a new health centre in the making has been fantastic for the children. They have been fascinated by the whole visit and really enjoyed the presentation showing how the site has got to where it is and what will happen next.”

To mark the children’s visit, they have been asked to design a mosaic which will be displayed in the new health centre. An image of the new health centre will be sketched by a teacher from St. Mary's CE Primary School and each of the children will add in a drawing about what the health centre and the local community means to them.

Speaking about facilitating the visit Simon McHale, Site Manager for the health centre from Nu Construction said: “We were delighted to welcome the children to have a look at the site and explain to them about what was happening and the different professions on site to carry out the jobs needed to construct the facility.

“The children were extremely excited to look at the safety equipment and try it on and asked some interesting and thought provoking questions.”

The new build is located close to the RBH Kirkholt Strand regeneration project and will be able to offer services to more than 6,000 local people. The 550sq m, two-storey building will house a range of GP-led primary care services provided by Kirkholt Medical Practice who will move from their current temporary premises.

On track to be completed by spring next year, the state of the art facility will provide a variety of health and community services for Kirkholt residents in premises which are fit for the future improving access to quality healthcare as well as offering modern facilities for integrated teams and community services in one location.