Barlby Primary pupils showcase drawings on new homes hoardings

Published: Wednesday 1 April 2026

Updated: Monday 20 May 2024

Barlby Primary School pupils paid a visit to the nearby Council’s new homes site where we are building 83 new homes, over half of which are for Council tenants and key workers, to see the pictures they had created now displayed on the hoardings.
The Year 4 pupils Zaynab Benhmadouch, Suhail Merid, Amelia Himeur, Zakriya Mamun and Israa Abdullahi all aged nine, also got to meet Cllr Sof McVeigh, Lead Member for New Homes, at the Barlby Road new homes site in north Kensington and talk to her about their pictures.

Construction representatives met pupils to discuss future careers

Earlier this year, representatives from award-winning housebuilder, The Hill Group, who are building the new homes at the Barlby site, visited Barlby Primary School to promote careers in construction for National Apprenticeship Week.
They asked the students to draw pictures of what they want to do as a career in the future and they saw a range of careers from rocket designer to footballer. These drawings were then displayed on these hoardings to promote careers and education.

Barlby Primary pupils talk about hoarding drawings

Speaking to Zakriya, he said: “I want to be a professional footballer like my idol Cristiano Ronaldo. My favourite team is Manchester City. The inspiration to become a football was that Ronaldo came from poverty and then he got rich and very famous and that's my inspiration to become like Ronaldo.”
Israa, said: “I drew this picture because once I'm older I would like to become a famous artist. I want to travel around the world where many people can see my art and be inspired by my paintings. Sometimes I think about when I'm a artist and if people don’t believe in themselves I can help Inspire them.”
This piece of work is part of the Council’s commitment to social investment which aims to get the best possible social value from the goods and services we buy and the property, parks and housing which we manage on behalf of our residents.

Good progress on the 83 new homes and sports hall at Barlby

Work is well underway on the new homes, and we are on track to complete the 83 new homes, a multi-use sports hall and studio for hire by the end of next year. The site will offer 38 homes for Council tenants, 10 homes for key workers and 35 homes for open market rent. The sports hall will give priority use to Barlby school pupils but will also be open to the community after school hours.
Cllr Sof McVeigh, said: “It was really lovely to meet the pupils and to see how they’ve brought to life their ambitions for the future through this artwork. It demonstrates what talented and ambitious young people we have in our borough. The homes we are building are for future generations, so we want our pupils to feel part of what we are building and understand what we are doing. This has been a great way to involve them in our house building plans.”
Barlby Road is one of the sites included in the Council’s New Homes Programme which is delivering 600 new homes across the borough, 300 of which will be for Council tenants.

Video: Barlby Road new homes site

Full transcript of this video

[00:00] hi I'm here in front of the Barby Road new home site where we're building 83 new homes with well over half of council homes and key workers so as well as building all the new homes we're going to have a Sports Hall which everybody can use and also a studio which can be for higher for local groups and as you can see I'm here with Barbie Road pupils and they have done this beautiful collection of pictures on the hoarding so it's not just a boring building hoarding they have put up what they would like to do in the future for their
[00:33] careers and this came about because Hill the construction company who building the new homes visited the school as part of national apprenticeship week and asked them what kind of careers do they want and tried to promote them to think about careers in construction and here are some of the ideas that they've come up with so guys do you want to show me Point all come and point to which one is [Music] yours so we have a footballer a teacher an artist author a writer and another footballer and also there's also a
[01:09] female footballer here as well my name is Zacharia and I want to be a professional footballer like my idol Cristiano Ronaldo and I want my favourite team is Manchester City and uh the inspiration that came to me was that Ronaldo came from poverty and then he came from poverty and then he got rich and very famous and then I want that's my inspiration to become like Ronaldo um I drew this picture because once I'm older I would like to become a famous artist and I want to travel around the world where many people can see my Arts
[01:47] my name is Amelia and I wanted to be an author because I love reading books my name is z and I one day I would like to become a teacher because I like helping children learn different things my name is Sahu and one day I want to become a professional footballer and travel around the world to win many trophies like the World Cup and the Champions League