Having met with Dennis Jönsson at Tetra Pak, I took what he said about having the confidence in our vision and values and applied it to our exhibition at InterBuild. Interbuild is an international construction event held every year at the National Exhibition Centre, in the UK.

We decided this year to scale up what we offer at exhibitions like Interbuild and EcoBuild and have designed a classroom using the ModCell System. In the UK, Education is one of the largest markets for construction. Despite the credit crunch, the outlook for the education sector is still healthy and the UK Government is committed to the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme of rebuilding and refurbishing 3,500 schools by 2020. The BSF programme has a value of £45 billion.

Not only is the BSF programme important economically, but socially and environmentally as well. The Department of Children Schools and Families (DCSF) is committed to delivering sustainable education and we ensure that schools designed using ModCell can be used as teaching and learning tools in their own right. We do this by ensuring that the design, construction and operation of school buildings become an educational opportunity that engages at every turn with the curriculum. For us, making the school a teaching and learning tool is also the means by which we embed sustainability and support the objectives for delivering sustainable outcomes. For some projects, we have been able to provide the opportunity to engage in the assembly of the panels in a 21st century equivalent of an Amish Barn Raising. Both young and old have visited a Flying Factory to get hands-on experience of making ModCell panels to be used on their project. This experiential learning is valuable in engaging children in the reality of building buildings.

At Interbuild we met a business from Ireland that is heavily involved in the provision of 2, 3 and 4 classroom extensions to schools and was interested in lifting the environmental performance of their offering. ModCell seemed to not only fit the bill but add significantly more value than just creating a building. Applying the learning from Dennis Jönsson, I was confident enough to say that it was ModCell that was looking for the right partner to work with in Ireland and not the other way round. A small but important difference in position.

This week we issued our first design for schools in Ireland and hope to be hosting a visit by officials from the Irish Department for Education to see projects we have delivered in the UK. I'll let you know how we get on.