Arreton St George’s CE Primary School took the opportunity to give young pupils an early lesson in engineering during the ongoing work to improve the main road through the village.

Around 30 youngsters from Coral reception class were shown what was involved in rebuilding and resurfacing the road outside their school by Island Roads site agent Keith Sloane.

The idea of a site visit was raised during one of the many visits Keith has made to the school to inform them of the progress of the round-the-clock work to rebuild and resurface the highway outside.

“The children have been quite excited about all the activity outside and they were very keen to learn more about what was involved in the project,” said reception class teacher Mrs Maria Herbert. “We thought there was a great opportunity to show them a construction project in action and Keith was really happy to arrange a visit to the site.”

Mrs Herbert said Island Roads had kept the school informed of progress while work was focussed on the area outside the school and had re-adjusted the programme so the stretch of road serving all its car parks was upgraded in the first phase of the project.

“Island Roads have tried hard to keep the disruption to us to a minimum – they have been really good,” Mrs Herbert said.

“The road was absolutely full of potholes and it is going to be so much better because of this work. The children really enjoyed seeing what was involved in making the road better.”

Mrs Herbert also thanked Arreton Barns for allowing the school to use one of the complex’s fields as a drop-off and collection point at the beginning and end of the school days. “In fact the children have really enjoyed the short walk at the end of the day,” she said.

Keith said: “It was really good to see the children so enthusiastic about the work we are doing and we were delighted to supervise a visit so they could find out more. Who knows, there could even be some future Island Roads employees amongst the pupils.”

Island Roads is working to rebuild and reconstruct a two-kilometre stretch of the A3056 through Arreton between Arreton Cross and the Fighting Cocks Cross. The scheme is scheduled to last around 12 weeks and favourable weather and ground conditions have meant that works are progressing well.