Congratulations to top Apprentice Conna as he starts his career with Kendrick Homes

Conna O’Toole joined Kendrick Homes two years ago on our Apprenticeship scheme in carpentry and joinery and has never looked back.

The 21 year old from Northfield in Birmingham has gone from strength to strength and has recently been awarded first place in The Skillbuild Regional Heat Competition 2017, which brings all of the college’s best carpenters and joiners together within the West Midlands.

He came third in the competition last year, but this year’s first place ensures he now competes at National level later this year.

He is currently based at our development at Spring Meadows in Drakes Broughton near Pershore where he can be found fitting roofing trusses and attending to other carpentry work.

Conna commented, “I am delighted to be working with Kendrick Homes who not only encourage me but give me so much flexibility to continue my studies on a day release basis at college, whilst enabling me to be understudy to the same carpenter and joiner on a daily basis.

"By being able to combine the theory and practical knowledge that I am gaining it is giving me the confidence to enter such competitions as Skillbuild.

"And it is a great feeling to now be able to say I am officially a carpenter and joiner – and the best in the region!”

Earlier this year Conna worked on a voluntary basis through the college to help complete a project for Perry Common Primary School for an outdoor ‘show and tell’ area which gave him new experience of working in a different environment - and as one of the highest trained Apprentices on site he also had an opportunity to perform in a managerial role too.

Wayne Bingham, Health, Safety and Environment Manager at Kendrick Homes commented, “ By working with Apprentices such as Conna we are able to bring them through the ranks and are able to teach them our style and quality by training them to Kendrick Homes’ high standards.

“And by being able to continue their studying on a day release course whilst combining their onsite learning and knowledge outside of the classroom with a Kendrick approved carpenter and joiner it’s a win-win situation.

“It's also good having an Apprentice on site that knows our standards and someone that we can rely on 100%, such as Conna, and we wish him every success in his continued development as a carpenter and joiner.”

Congratulations Conna!

London commuter Jane returns to Bromsgrove roots to purchase her new Kendrick home

Jane Wilson grew up in Bromsgrove and moved to Leamington Spa in Warwickshire six years ago following the death of her grandmother, where she lived with her partner and their dog in her grandmothers Georgian flat.

Her Mom still lives in Bromsgrove and following one of their regular visits to see her they noticed the 'Coming Soon' sign from Kendrick Homes Limited on the Kidderminster Road and made enquiries about what type of homes would be available.

The family is very familiar with Kendrick Homes as Jane’s Aunt purchased one of their homes at another development recently and at the time of their initial enquiry they had the pick of the plans on both house types and south facing gardens.

Jane works in the fashion industry in London and has commuted daily to the big smoke for the last three years, so travel connections from Bromsgrove to London were a big consideration.

However the combination of more home for your money and a small development of just 18 homes set away from the main road was enough to entice her back to her homeland of Bromsgrove.

Jane commented, “Following our reservation of the property ‘off-plan’ we completed on our first brand new house within five months – and now, for the first time we have a garden too and whilst we are not green fingered yet, our dog is very happy!

“Our three-bed home gives us the opportunity to grow in a house that has huge rooms throughout which in time would be ideal to bring up a family.

“Having purchased off-plan we were delighted to find the house is much bigger than we initially expected with additional items that include soft close cupboards in the kitchen, a massive storage area underneath the stairs and an electric garage door.

“ Our site manager John was exceptional and ensured that any requests we had could be addressed straight away as he was always on site.

“It really is so refreshing to be able to live in a smaller development of homes yet still be only two hours away from my work in London - it’s like I have never been away from our friends and family in Bromsgrove.

“Kendrick Homes enabled the move to be extremely easy for us, and nothing was too much trouble for them and their family values shone throughout – and for that we will always be very grateful.” 
 

For more information about our Bromsgrove developemnt click here

Our Super New Scarves Designed by King Edward VI College Student

Following the success of a previous design competition in 2015 we have once again joined forces with King Edward VI College in Stourbridge to design a new scarf for our Sales Team.

A winning design

Chelli Peonio, a year 13 student at the college who is studying textile design was announced the winner after a strong contest of eight entries. She was presented with a prize of £250 plus Amazon vouchers by our design director, Andy Cockayne, at a recent awards evening.

Andy commented at the event, “The abilities and design skills of the students studying textile design at King Edward VI College is absolutely first class. Here at Kendrick Homes Limited we are keen to continue to put something back into our community and we have very clearly once again achieved this"

The competition entries were so strong that we decided to also present seven runner up prizes of £25 Amazon Vouchers to Grace Clarke, Jess McEwan, Alex Penn, Charlotte Sankey, Lottie Jennings, Lolita Sakura-Allen and Emily Reeve.

Our winning designer Chelli commented “I am absolutely delighted, and shocked to have been awarded the winner of this competition, as I genuinely never win anything!. I was helped along the way by my best friends who were all runners up – we all helped each other with inspiration for such a great opportunity to design a scarf that will be used in the commercial world.

Sights set on the future

Chelli plans to utilise her prize to purchase some new textile materials and make some new products in her own name – and in the future she has her sights set on launching her own label.

Sue Halstead, subject leader for textile design at King Edward VI College commented, “This was such a fantastic and privileged opportunity to work on a real life commercial design opportunity, it really was a project not to miss. All of the entrants took the project very seriously and worked very professionally to create the designs in their own time and with very little input by us.

Sue continued "It was a learning curve for all of us but one we would not have missed for the world, particularly as many of the entrants are going on to design-related degree courses at University and taking part in this live brief has given them a real edge.”

A fantastic opportunity

Remley Mann, Principal at King Edward VI College commented, “We were delighted when Kendrick Homes gave our students the opportunity to design and produce a new commercial textile project– as this is very rare for students to be able work with a live design brief.

"I would like to express our thanks to Kendrick Homes for once again giving our students invaluable experience which will greatly help them to continue studying in their chosen subject of textile design.

"I am particularly impressed with the fact that Kendrick Homes have also chosen our students for this initiative and I think this is a testament to their genuine desire to both make a contribution to, and engage with the local community.”

Our sales team are delighted with the new, unique scarves and are now wearing them with pride across our showhomes and sales centres.