Team TEXO has spent the school holidays building something special for Kirkhill Primary.
Kirkhill Learning Hub delivers cookery and budgeting lessons for children as well as events for families in the wider community. When the TEXO team learned from Russell Anderson that the school needed a proper facility to continue its work, they got busy!
“The Russell Anderson Foundation has been working with Kirkhill Primary School since 2020,” explains Russell, “delivering physical activity and health and wellbeing programmes to the pupils. An important strand of the work has been healthy eating and we kitted out a skills room at the school with basic cooking utensils for cooking classes.”
Meeting our MD Chris Smith by chance, Russell described the local projects that his Foundation was involved with. Not long afterwards, Chris and Richard Lamb (Director of Workspace Solutions) visited Kirkhill Primary and learned about the positive impact that their project was having on local children and families.
“At Kirkhill Skills Hub, learning is delivered through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) projects relating to real life contexts,” says Jaquie Alexander from Kirkhill. “Children learn practical skills such as food preparation, nutrition and budgeting alongside communication, collaboration, critical thinking, focusing and creativity. We’ve seen high levels of engagement from learners who struggle at other times.”
“The aim is to spread our learners’ knowledge of healthy, affordable food into family homes and the wider local community. At the end of each module, learners take home a bag of ingredients and recipes to prepare for their families. We have received so much positive feedback about children now preparing family meals on a regular basis.”
As well as exciting cookery sessions for the children, the Learning Hub runs community events like ‘Soup and Salsa’ for families.
“After our visit, we were overwhelmed by the situation and the effort that was going into this from the teachers and kids,” says Richard. “We felt a sense of duty to support the initiative and let everyone involved feel that what they were doing was important and that we cared for them, and all this stands for.”
The TEXO Foundation made a proposal to design and install a purpose-built kitchen area which would enable Kirkhill Learning Hub to continue their brilliant work. During the summer holidays, team TEXO got started – and we’re proud to say that the ribbon will be cut this week.
Former Aberdeen FC Captain, Russell Anderson, said: “The new space will be an exciting addition to the school and will have a lasting and meaningful impact on the whole community.” We can’t wait to see what Kirkhill Learning Hub cooks up next.
