Project Team Update
Schools Engagement Programme
July 26 2021
This month we have been facilitating some engagement with local schools in the area to raise awareness of the project, offer some light education to the children and generate some useful outputs that will feed into the design code. The two schools that took part were Stockingford Academy primary school (14 July) and Nuneaton Academy secondary school (15 July).
During the two days of engagement a selection of pupils across different year groups partook in a range of workshops that were fun, educational and challenging. The activities are summarised below.
Stockingford Academy
Bird feeders: Year 2 pupils were tasked with creating a bird feeder that could be hung around the school grounds or at home in their gardens. This involved decorative painting and use of coloured ribbons to prepare the containers. While the paint was drying, pupils were tasked with designing their own open space, using stickers and colouring pencils. These tasks together helped teach the importance of nature and biodiversity.
Heritage mosaic: Year 3 pupils were tasked with creating a colourful mosaic of a choice of two landmark historic buildings in the area: Stockingford Academy and Arbury Hall. Pupils worked in pairs to stick coloured stones onto a template and create their own unique mosaic. This helped teach pupils the importance of historic buildings and character.
Historic mapping: Year 5 pupils were tasked with creating some 3D maps of their local area using templates from three different periods of time over the last 100 years. The maps allowed pupils to inspect and compare how the area has changed over time and they were asked to think about why these changes have come. This task helped teach students the history of development in the area.
Nuneaton Academy
Year 7 and 9 pupils participated in a two-part workshop. The first part was simply asking pupils what they liked about their local area, what they thought could be improved, and any other ideas for the future. The second part was split into three sections: open space, nature and amenities; and movement and streets; heritage, character and architecture. Pupils were shown a selection of images and maps and asked to comment on what they liked and disliked and asked about what they thought should be included in the future as part of the design code. We had some excellent feedback from the pupils which has all been recorded and will be incorporated, where possible, into the design code.
We want to thank both Stockingford Academy and Nuneaton Academy for getting involved in the engagement days and hope to continue engaging with them as the project and site develops.