Throughout this year, the ATM team have donated many hours of their time to assist with some fantastic social value projects. Here, we take a look at some of our favourites...

St Theresa’s School

We took a break from our busy schedules to create a 'magic garden' play area at St. Theresa's Catholic Primary School in Leeds, in March.

The play area was created with the help of Green-tech, who kindly donated soil for the project. The aim of the project was to provide a fun and safe space for the children at St. Theresa's to play and explore nature. The following features were built as part of the project by our team of 9 volunteers: hedging, new pond and den areas and some stunning raised planters to add some life to the garden.

Carleton Rode Primary School

We partnered with Ringway to help Carlton Rode Primary School expand their outdoor learning space. The school council designed and presented their ideas to the fabulous team who stepped in to help make the children’s designs a reality. Over two days our volunteers: 

Laid 6 pallets of mulch, created a seating area for forest school lessons, installed posts for the children to build dens, made raised beds full of sunflowers and installed wildflower matting.

Tough Mudder fun run

Our team of runners successfully completed the Tough Mudder marathon this year, in an amazing showing of teamwork and togetherness, raising over £1,500 so far in the process! We raised funds for Andy’s Man Club, have smashed our target and had a lot of fun doing so. We have recently announced our ‘Charity of the Year’, the wonderful Macmillan, so we expect to see plenty more fundraisers soon!

Engine Pit Waggonway

It isn’t every day that you get the chance to enhance a little bit of history, but recently we had the opportunity to do just that. 

The Waggonway was built in 1819 to transport coal from the Engine Pit, near Choppington, to coal staithes on the river Blyth, 30m south of this entrance. It was the first use of the revolutionary new 'malleable' iron rails, forged at the nearby Bedlington Ironworks.

When we were asked to help clear vegetation and create easier access for pedestrians to the historic Engine Pit Waggonway, we jumped at the opportunity and were very pleased with the result.

Lobley Hill Primary School

In June, eight volunteers across Costain and ATM attended Lobley Hill Primary School to support them with the renovation of their outdoor play areas.

Prior to our visit, the school had discussed with us their outdoor areas at the school. They requested any support we would be able to provide on renovating their school play-yard and quad, as they wanted to plant some wildflowers in the areas. 

We worked in the quad area at the school, preparing the ground for planting wildflowers. We turned over a large section of grass and three large planters as well as doing some general maintenance and tidying of the quad. Some of the children helped us plant the wildflower seeds once the area was all turned over and then we raked over the seeds and watered the areas with a hose. We also donated the school a bug hotel (Buggingham Palace).

The school were very happy with our success on the day and will be keeping us informed of the wildflower’s growth. We will continue to work with this school for the duration of the A1 Birtley to Coal House scheme.

At ATM, we will continue to do all we can to contribute to the social value drive in our industry. As shown in just a few of our examples above, the benefits that we can bring to both the local and wider community are unmatched, and together, we can make a real difference.

If you would like to discuss a social value project that we can assist with then get in touch today.