Schoolchildren donned hard hats and high-vis jackets when they toured a chocolate factory that’s now become a building site.

The visit to the former Barratt's chocolate factory in Wood Green was arranged by Haringey Council for pupils at Alexandra Primary School to learn about how houses and blocks of flats are made.

Youngsters from the Western Road school met the construction crew and asked about the jobs they are doing.

Site manager Yaroslav Landyak was on hand to answer their questions about what skills the workers need to build the homes.

“It is important that we talk about what we do to young people,” Yaroslav said. “We took them round the site to share knowledge with the next generation of what we do, to encourage them to take up construction work when they leave school.”

The 10 youngsters aged seven to 11 created their own artwork inspired by the visit, which was part of a Haringey Council education programme about its housebuilding schemes.

Cllr Ruth Gordon, who met the children at the building site, said: “We’re showing youngsters the important work we’re doing to build homes for people.

“Talking to them helps them to shape their local area in the future.

“They knew about some of the jobs on the site. The questions at the end were useful to them.”

The new council development, with its “breathtaking views of Alexandra Palace”, is for 80 families in 71 rented flats and nine houses, all built with environmentally friendly materials.

It is part of the council’s housebuilding programme to put up 3,000 new “high-quality and affordable” homes by 2031, included in the Mayor of London’s target of 20,000 new homes across London in the next eight years.

The council housing being erected on the Clarendon Road site are being built with “sustainability” standards using high levels of insulation and air-source pumps to make them cheap to heat, the children learned. This will help tackle global warming as they grow up.