SCHOOLCHILDREN were “buzzing” after being given the chance to tour a housing development site and see a building being demolished in Basingstoke.

Sentinel Housing Association and Hill Partnerships welcomed a group of Year 4 children from Marnel Community Junior School to the New Horizons project in Oakridge, Basingstoke.

The scheme involves replacing 90 maisonettes with 190 new homes in Freemantle Street, Taverner Street, Westray Street and Silvester Close, and work is expected to be completed in March 2016.

The youngsters were given the tour as part of a Grand Design project and were able to view finished apartments and see how a development is designed and constructed.

Victoria Grayson, assistant headteacher at Marnel Community Junior School, in Shetland Road, Popley, said: “The visit gave the children the opportunity to bring their learning to life and put it into a real context.

“The children were absolutely buzzing with excitement – we all loved it.”

Following the visit the pupils made models of their own homes and presented them to Mike Shepherd, development and regeneration director at Sentinel Housing Association.

Mr Shepherd said: “We’ve really enjoyed working with the children from Marnel Community Junior School and we hope that some of them will be inspired to become the architects, surveyors and builders of the future.”