Interviewer:
And first of all, we’ll just head over here to Johnston Technical Education Centre, and these guys have a serious task ahead of them. They have to create something before 3 o’clock. They’ve got four hours to do it. And, Willie, come in and tell us what is going on here.
Teacher 1:
Right ok, its quite an interesting project. It’s experimental in as much as we are trying to find something that’s realistic. There’s a scale there that the boys understand. This is the real thing. At the same time, its got to be economical enough that we can take it down and use it again. So, they’re building a section of a timber-framed house, and I’m sure they would want to tell you something about it themselves.
Interviewer:
Come on then. You can tell me. You’re standing with your hands in your pockets. You must be looking for a job with the ‘council’ when you leave school obviously. So, tell me what you’re actually doing here?
Pupil 1:
Well, we’re building a side of a house and we’re making, like, the foundation and all that of it. What else, what is it that we are doing, sir?
Interviewer:
What else is it, sir? Right, sir, you tell us.
Teacher 2:
We’ve mocked up a foundation of a house. The grey section at the bottom is what you would come into - the breeze block. So we’re putting the floor down on top of the foundations and then we’re putting the wall panels for a kit house on top of that. So its just as though you would get when you are building a kit house. That’s what I used to do when I was a builder, and then I went to do teaching after that. So it gives them the experience of almost full size - what it’s like to build a kit house.
Interviewer:
Bit of a task, though, if you only have four hours to do this?
Teacher 2:
Oh, the boys are well up for it.
Interviewer:
Oh, well, I’ll let you get on with it.
So, Johnston Tec, all looking good now. The plaster board going on to the walls. Remember, of course, they are making a quarter of a room, and, last time we saw it, they had foundations down, the wall plate in and the ring beam. Now they have a couple of walls up, putting plaster board on and I believe, pretty soon, we’re going to be finding out how to build a double-glazed unit. Screws first of all. I’ll just let you get in nice and close.
(No further dialogue for the concluding pictures)