Eco-Club makes a real
difference
Sustainable Futures were asked to run Eco Club following a request
from the School Council. Club members chose topics that they felt
were important to them and the school, to explore in the hour
long after school session, giving them the chance to really make
a difference.
Amongst other things the group…
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produced leaflets on composting that were
copied and distributed to every child in the school.
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painted a banner inspired by David Hockney’s
picture of Saltaire, celebrating urban parks and gardens.
The banner was displayed at the Saltaire Festival.
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designed recycling posters for use around
school.
As a grand finale the group had an overnight visit to the Yorkshire
Dales thanks to the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust’s Learning
in Limestone Country project.
Activities exploring nature and the natural world close up led
to a session working with local Dales artist Katherine Holmes.
The children had the opportunity to create their own large landscape
pictures of Gordedale Scar in Malham.
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Painting pictures in the Dales
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Pavement Art in the Park
Earlier this year, school children gathered in Lister Park, Manningham,
to create their own pavement art. 60 children from Atlas Primary,
Miriam Lord Primary and Saltaire Primary Schools arrived ready
for a fun packed day celebrating our parks and gardens, as part
of the national Young Pavement Artist of the Year competition.
Organised by Sustainable Futures and working in conjunction with
Kala Sangam, Artworks and Cartwright Hall Education Service, the
day offered children the chance to explore the park through various
art workshops. The children then spent the afternoon creating
their own works of pavement art on the theme of ‘parks and
gardens’, using chalks. Winners from the day were entered
into the national Young Pavement Artist of the Year competition.
In addition the competition raised money for the Duchenne Muscular
Dystrophy Charity.
Children from Saltaire Primary School’s Eco Club created
a banner to celebrate the event.
The banner won a Highly Commended Certificate and a photo of it
was displayed in Tate Britain.
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BCEP at the Mela
At the Bradford Mela this year, BCEP provided a banner-making
project. It was designed to be something for both children and
adults, and to be a fun, easy activity, that enabled us to meet
people and inform them about the work of BCEP. The theme for the
banner was “all things bright and natural” and used
the Plant Cultures plants as a resource and inspiration.
These were hung around as a source of discussion and stimulus
and doubled up as a very nice decoration for the stall! We also
had the great pleasure of setting up camp next to BEES with whom
we created a fully environmental space outside the Bradford Vision
tent - our hosts for the event. The two stalls complimented each
other as BCEP’s was a creative activity and BEES’
involved planting, so some of the kids combined the two and painted
the plants they’d just planted!
Overall, we had over 100 participants who produced a wide variety
of beautiful artwork to be put on the banner. Lots of fun was
had, information given and a very hectic couple of days spent
in the sunshine at the Mela. At the end of it all, the skies opened
and we were swept into the Bradford Vision marquee along with
what felt like the entire population of the Mela - soaked but
satisfied with a good weekend's activity.
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APE - the story so far
The project has been touring about the area making a splash wherever
it landed. During the summer holidays, Becky and Jen took the
Parts out and about to schemes and settings that covered the whole
of the Bradford area. They were attended by a wide scope of young
people in terms of ages, cultural backgrounds and abilities. It
was interesting to get the young people’s feedback and input
regarding the quality and experience of the project. The response
was overwhelmingly positive and none of the Parts proved to be
unworkable or unpopular. A lot more folk now know about the project
and are very willing to have us back.
As we move towards the future we will continue to deliver more
and more loose parts play to children in Bradford and we will
also keep on raiding skips and recylcling whatever we can!
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Service Satisfaction Survey Results
Each year BCEP surveys its clients to gain feedback on our activities.
With an outstanding response rate of nearly 7 in 10 clients filling
in and posting back or survey, BCEP is delighted to discover that
over half of our responding clients think BCEP’s
programmes are fantastic and another third think they
are good. Although Sustainable Futures had a glitch with one of
their workshops this has been investigated and improved.
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Yorkshire Water & Bradford Bulls
go back to E Schools
The E Schools Programme is an eighteen-month, NRF funded, multi-partnership
pilot programme led by Bradford Community Environment Project.
The programme is working with seven primary schools and one secondary
school in the Bradford area, developing outdoor classrooms on
school grounds to support core curriculum subjects and learning
development.
Work at Wycliffe CE Primary School is now complete and the improved
grounds were officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Bradford in
April 2005, while the remaining seven schools are currently being
developed. To date we have created three mixed fruit orchards,
several areas of native deciduous trees, numerous living willow
structures, a number of areas for horticultural practice and planted
a bog garden.
Also completed is the installation of two ponds, six seating
areas, three adventure play areas and a trim trail, with many
more environmental assets to follow. Much of this work has been
accomplished wherever possible with the assistance of pupils and
volunteers.
Staff from Yorkshire water’s I.T. Department take a well
earned
rest for a photocall after the joys of a day’s top toil.
In addition E Schools have also supported after-school Gardening
Clubs, delivered summer scheme sessions at St. Columba’s
Catholic Primary School on the theme of habitats. In addition
we have delivered a workshop on Creative Outdoor Classrooms for
the Primary Science Festival which was organised by Education
Bradford.
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Having worked closely with Bradford
Cares we have drawn support from local companies and would like
to give a big thank you to the following:-
The IT staff of Yorkshire Water who assisted in manually lifting
20 tonnes of topsoil up to a raised terraced veranda at Guardhouse
Primary School.
The New Supplies staff of Yorkshire Water who assisted in the
preparation of a wildflower meadow and construction of a footpath
that provides access to the Natural Life wild life area which
is currently being developed for multi-school use at Lowerfields
Primary School.
Bradford Bulls Academy trainees who helped prepare and install
a wildflower meadow and woodchip path at Brackenhill Primary School.
Without the help of these two companies, their employees and Bradford
Cares much of our work would be extremely difficult. We are very
grateful to everyone who helped make these projects a reality.
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Hallcliffe Community Garden Opens
This recently completed project, involved the entire
range of services offered by the Urban Design Team.
The site pictured below on Hallcliffe in Baildon, was originally
a derelict Church School playground and has now been transformed
into a very attractive amenity for the local community by volunteer
members of Hallcliffe Community Garden Ltd, a very enthusiastic
and enterprising group.
Urban Design was represented at the inaugural and subsequent
meetings of the group offering technical
and design support, carrying out a Community Consultation, a Project
Preparation Plan and full costings. These were done as a basis
for funding bids to the Countryside Agency, WREN and other funders.
The Team followed on with basic designs, plans and details for
Planning Permission, a schedule of works for site clearance and
hard landscaping tenders. All site works were supervised
by the team until completion of major contracted works.
All soft landscaping was undertaken by volunteers with over half
of the plants and shrubs being grown on, or donated by, members
of the group - remarkable considering the scale of the project. |
Derelict Hallcliffe site
The transformed
Hallcliffe community garden
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